Oprah Winfrey Network set to launch on Saturday

After three years of planning, delays and management misfires, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network finally arrives Saturday, the biggest launch of a cable channel in more than decade.

Industry observers are eager to see whether the celebrity who can unleash consumer trends can leverage the success of her 25-year run in daytime television into a 24-hour cable channel.

The new channel is a mix of programming that encourages people to “live their best lives” with the empowerment message that is the Oprah Winfrey brand.

If viewers can only find the message. Winfrey’s network will mostly reside on channels above 200, taking over the position of Discovery Communications Inc.’s Discovery Health Channel.

Even in the digital age, that’s a handicap – the higher the number, the less likely viewers will stumble across the programming as they switch among the more heavily watched channels lower on the lineup.

OWN will also be competing against several other entrenched cable networks aimed at the same female audience.

Still, backers believe, Winfrey’s emphasis on positive and optimistic programming is unique among cable networks that appeal to women.

Moreover, when it comes to brand awareness, it doesn’t get more prominent than Winfrey, whose daily talk show is watched by 7 million viewers.

“There is no network that has ever launched in 80 million homes and with the advantage of the best brand in media, which is Oprah, and a website, which is the No. 2 or No. 3 website for women,” said David Zaslav, chief executive of Discovery Communications, which owns 50 percent of OWN.

“It will be a historic launch, in terms of the reach and power.”

For now, however, Winfrey remains immersed in her longtime syndicated talk show. She will finish taping in May – five months after OWN premieres – for episodes that will run through Sept. 9, when the program takes its final bow.

Indeed, Winfrey’s reluctance to loosen her grip on her daytime show has been a source of frustration for Discovery, which so far has spent $110 million out of a budgeted $189 million on start-up costs.

Even as recently as 18 months ago – long after plans for OWN had been announced – Winfrey was undecided about whether she would end her daytime show to concentrate on the cable channel.

Her daytime program, Winfrey said in a telephone interview, remains her “full-time job” while it is in production.

“I’ve built (OWN) with only 10 percent of my time, but I have surrounded myself with good people,” she said. “And when I am able to focus my full gaze on it, the network is only going to get better.”

Those hoping to see Winfrey reprise her signature daily show will be disappointed.

Although she will be part of the promotional on-air blitz and host a few programs, the first month will rely heavily on TV celebrities that her production company has groomed, including relationship expert Phil McGraw and surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.

They all will appear along with financial guru Suze Orman. Winfrey’s friend Gayle King will host a daily talk show, and therapist Laura Berman will give sex advice.

OWN is also jumping on the country’s obsession with talent shows: Ten people will compete for the chance to have their own show on “Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star: Your OWN Show.”

Other program highlights include multi-part specials about women in prison, “Breaking Down the Bars,” a topic that has always intrigued Winfrey; and documentaries on Sarah Ferguson, the duchess of York, and country singer Shania Twain.

Winfrey will appear in “Behind the Scenes: The Oprah Show Final Season” and “Oprah Presents Master Class,” in which she interviews such luminaries as Maya Angelou, Diane Sawyer, Simon Cowell, Jay-Z and Condoleezza Rice.

She agreed to increase her on-air presence last summer, at Discovery’s request, when the network nearly doubled the size of its funding commitment, from $100 million to $189 million.

“We are getting a lot of Oprah’s energy and her creative vision, and that’s one of the best assets we could have,” Zaslav said.

“A lot of the programming will resonate, some of it won’t,” he added. “We recognize it’s going to take a while to find a voice. But we have an advantage because we know what the voice is going to be.”

Says Winfrey: “I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether to go forward with this, and once I made the decision, then I was in. I am committed for the long haul.

“This network is going to work. I know what people want.”