Oprah Prime

***Oprah Prime*** (formerly ***Oprah's Next Chapter***) is an American prime time television series hosted and produced by Oprah Winfrey. It was produced by Harpo Studios and aired for three seasons on the Oprah Winfrey Network from January 1, 2012 to January 4, 2015.

## Background

The show is an interview program that allows Oprah Winfrey to step outside the studio for some riveting, enlightening in-depth conversations with newsmakers, celebrities, thought leaders and real-life families.

## Episodes

Main article: *List of Oprah Prime episodes*

 1
 2
 3

## Reception

### Critical

*Oprah's Next Chapter* premiered to positive reviews from critics. Sara Vilkomerson of *Entertainment Weekly* stated that the premiere with Steven Tyler showcased Winfrey's trademark skills as "a master interviewer. It's easy to take for granted, but Winfrey has both an innate ability to get celebrities to open up to her, and zero hesitation over asking tough questions." Vilkomerson further praised the show's behind the scenes segments and noted that the show has a more relaxed feel than *The Oprah Winfrey Show*, which might take some time for viewers to adjust to. Piers Morgan also praised the show on his Facebook page, saying that it was "fantastic" and that Winfrey as "the undisputed Queen of chat." Steve Johnson of *Chicago Tribune* declared that Winfrey "knows how to steer a celebrity chat" and that her discussion with Tyler in the premiere was "fascinating". On the other hand, Johnson criticized the show's tendency to focus too much on the host; he posits the producers to use behind the scenes segments to reveal that Winfrey is the "orchestrator and validator" of the program's revealing conversations.

### Ratings

The two-hour premiere of *Oprah's Next Chapter* scored a 1.1 rating in the network's target women 25-54 demographic and 1.1 million viewers total, giving OWN its highest ratings for a Sunday night premiere since the network was launched the previous year. The premiere represented a 463 percent increase in the demo over the network's December 2011 average in that time period. Only the premiere of *Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes* scored better than the *Next Chapter* premiere, drawing a 1.11 in the demo and 1.2 million viewers total. The second week, featuring Winfrey's interview with pastor Joel Osteen, brought in an audience of 1.6 million during its Sunday night broadcast, marking a forty-five percent growth from the series premiere and holding the record for being the network's most watched broadcast since its 2011 launch. It also improved among the women 25-54 demographic, adding eighteen percent from the previous episode for a 1.3 rating. The series also built on its audience in the second half-hour, growing from 1.5 million to 1.6 million. The show saw a steep decline in its third week as Winfrey's interview with Chris Christie drew in only 500,000 viewers, down over 1 million viewers from the previous week. The following week's interview with George Lucas saw a slight increase with 557,000 on OWN. An interview with Whitney Houston's family, including Bobbi Kristina Brown, attracted 3.5 million viewers, making for OWN's highest-rated program to date until it was surpassed by the fifth episode of the second season of *The Haves and the Have Nots*, which attracted 3.6 million viewers, in March 2014.