Whoever emerges victorious from this selection process will likely experience a ratings coup. Sandusky’s story alone may be getting a little stale, but the fact that the plan appears to be alongside Dottie makes it a must-see. Ganim paints a picture of Dottie Sandusky as a woman who never had any suspicion of her husband’s alleged misdeeds. But the accusers have helped to develop a far different picture of her — not as the doting wife of an innocent man, but as an accomplice who turned a deaf ear and blind eye to the alleged abuse. Earlier this month, one of the boys told a grand jury that, “at least one occasion he screamed for help, knowing that Sandusky’s wife was upstairs, but no one ever came to help him.”

There’s no telling whether or not a joint appearance on any show will help the public image of Jerry and Dottie Sandusky (Jerry’s appearance by phone on Rock Center in November was, by many accounts, a bit odd). But it might offer some insight into the couple and how they operate, and will definitely make for great television, no matter which program emerges victorious.

Ortega reads from a notebook full of what appear to be essays, many of which he seemingly composed over the course of several months. One of his diatribes was on the end of the world, and he noted that there had been a lot of talk about it (at the time), alluding to Harold Camping’s rapture prediction from mid-May of this year.

The world’s end was just one of many topics Ortega-Hernandez hit on in the video. He brings up everything from beer pong to O.J. Simpson. He talks of a recent arrest for not having tags displayed properly on his dogs. He bemoans the role of government in our everyday lives. But his two favorite topics, without question, aree marijuana and God. In that order. At one point in the video, he even intertwines the two:

“God gave us everything we need to live and enjoy life: food to fuel, water to hydrate, sex for fun, horses for long term transportation, and marijuana to inspire, and thrive…for bigger and better things.”

The, “sex for fun, horses for long-term transportation,” line might actually prove to be the most in the entire video. Because there’s a very slight chance that he could be joking, and if you rewind the video at that point several times, there’s also a slight chance he might be trying to stifle a tiny smile, an act which would, at the very least, reveal another layer to the enigmatic Ortega-Hernandez, who comes off more like a college kid with boring, tired theories than a violent anarchist. And this isn’t to say that that one or the other characteristic is true, just that this is how he comes off in the video.

Much attention has also been put on Ortiz-Hernandez’s proclamation that he is Jesus. It’s not entirely clear if that was his exact intent, however. He refers to himself as the “modern-day Jesus Christ,” kind of in a way that Cee-Lo might refer to himself as a “modern-day Elton John”:

“You see, Oprah, there is still so much more that God needs me to express to the world. It’s not just a coincidence that I look like Jesus; I am the modern day Jesus Christ that you all have been waiting for. So I ask you Oprah, better yet, I’m begging you, Oprah. Please cast me onto your show.”

The video was taped by Ramon Bailey, a student at Idaho State who said he randomly met Ortega-Hernandez at the gym. Ortega-Hernandez asked him to help film a commercial. Bailey tried to blow it off, but Ortega-Hernandez hammered him with phone calls. Bailey told KBOI that the taping disturbed him so much that he never edited it and stopped returning Ortega-Hernandez’s calls.

“I don’t want to have an affiliation that I was like really good friends with this guy cause I wasn’t,” Bailey told KBOI. “I was just trying to be a nice college student trying to work towards a degree in my field and just trying to better myself but obviously it backfired.”

Watch the video of Ortega-Hernandez’s rant below (with a cameo in the middle by Bailey’s arm and midsection!), courtesy of KBOI in Idaho. And if you just want the juicy “I am Jesus” stuff, fast forward to about the 19 minute mark:

(H/T: Ryan J. Reilly from Talking Points Memo)

Michaele Salahi was inspired to do something with her voice, when she was back stage with Grammy award winner Bebe Winans and television host Oprah Winfrey at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. during the inauguration of President Barack Obama. It was a defining moment backstage when Oprah told Michaele, “Wow, you have an amazing voice!”

There’s an awesome bit of pop culture trivia! Only… it ain’t true. Our sister site, GossipCop, looked into the story, and found out the truth from Winfrey’s rep:

Winfrey’s rep tells Gossip Cop, “Oprah briefly met Ms. Salahi backstage at the Kennedy Center after an Oprah Show taping in January 2009. However, there’s absolutely no truth to the report that they discussed Ms. Salahi’s vocal abilities.”

And there you have it.

h/t GossipCop

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is also on this year’s list of nominees – not only for her continued demonstration of strength and resilience in the face of tragedy, but also, we’re sure, for the manner in which the hubbub surrounding the details of her attack have influenced the media’s very tone and rhetoric in reporting on such tragedies.

Readers can vote now through April 12th on whether each person on the list is truly influential, with the eventual winner set to appear in the magazine’s upcoming 2011 Time 100 issue.

As of this moment, the Fukushina 50 – the name given to the nearly 200 nuclear plant workers risking their lives to keep the plant’s reactors from overheating – are neck-and-neck with South Korean pop star / actor “Rain” – who manages to rake in a huge number of votes nearly every year, to the point that Stephen Colbert has interviewed him about the phenomenon. Hey, the people have spoken!

Check out the list and tell us: Who do you think should not be on it?

h/t Time.com

Oprah, who says she’s voted all her life–for both Republicans and Democrats–had never really paid close attention to just how much criticism gets lobbed at politicians until she knew one personally. “I am surprised at the mood of the country,” she said. “I am surprised at the fact that we live in an era where it’s so easy for everybody to have a position of criticism.”

Watch it here, from MSNBC:

Jazz Ison Sinkfield, of Atlanta, Georgia hopes that her 24-inch-long nails will draw enough attention and interest to land her a coveted guest spot on Oprah’s show, in addition to allowing her to meet other celebrities.

Sinkfield calls her ability to grow nails a talent and a gift from the Almighty in addition to being a fashion statement – a very loud statement which sets her back some $250 every time she needs a manicure. When a local reporter interviewing Sinkfield asked her manicurist, Rose, whether she felt proud of her role in cultivating Sinkfield’s talent, Rose seemed a bit hesitant. We wonder why!

We do hope Sinkfield’s 15 minutes of fame were worth the effort and exertion – and devoid of bathroom breaks.

h/t StyleList via HuffPo

Morgan got his first look at the new set over the weekend, and Piers Morgan Tonight executive producer Jonathan Wald released a photo of the set via Twitter this morning:

Gone is King’s dark-with-colored-dots set, replaced by a brightly lit set with whites and blues. The first week of guests for the show, which debuts with Oprah Winfrey next Monday, include Howard Stern on Tuesday, Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday, Ricky Gervais on Thursday and George Clooney on Friday.

It’s debatable whether that lineup represents a string of high profile gets–or, aside from Stern, whether anything “dangerous” will happen. But Morgan insists his interview style will be the key, and he promises to wrench great interviews out of every guest. We’ll see what viewers think next week. One area of potential concern: the person on the set with Morgan in the tweeted set photo? That’s Billy Bush.

You may not know much about CNN’s Piers Morgan yet, but know this: the guy knows how to craft a clever insult–like telling TV critics to get an “immediate lobotomy.”

Morgan–who’s been fearless in his blunt talk since being appointed the replacement for Larry King–is lashing out at critics who’ve slammed his choice of Oprah Winfrey as the “premiere guest” on Piers Morgan Tonight, which debuts January 17.

Morgan unveiled Oprah as his first guest to an audience of television critics in Los Angeles this week, and as The Washington Post’s Lisa De Moraes described it, “two years ago, that news would really have wowed the critics, reporters and bloggers who attend the press tour. These days, in which you have to fend off Oprah with a club as she manically plugs her new cable network, not so much.”

Oprah’s described the interview as a grilling–one of the toughest she’s done in twenty years. And Piers Morgan–who had hinted he was angling for Kate Middleton as his first guest–doesn’t have much respect for critics, as he told Mediaite:

Any journalist who doesn’t think Oprah Winfrey is one of the two or three biggest ‘gets’ in the world of interviews needs to change profession and have an immediate lobotomy.

Watch Oprah’s comments on the Piers Morgan interview here, from CNN:

My twitter feed blew up over the news that the study linking the MMR vaccine to autism had been declared an “elaborate fraud.” The study had actually been retracted a while back, but this makes it official. There have always been parents wary of vaccines, but this study is the one that started the ball rolling. Jenny McCarthy helped it grow into a giant snowball of panic. You know, Jenny McCarthy; former Playboy model, D-list actress and ex-girlfriend of Jim Carrey. She wasn’t in it alone. Oprah helped her spread the word. So did Larry King Live and The View. She was even on The Doctors, discussing the “debate” with doctors. She was a regular on our trusted TV shows; that is, after all, where you go when you have a book to promote.

I’m actually not trying to pound on Ms. McCarthy, because I’m pretty certain she has the purest of motivations. I believe she’s a victim of the misinformation as much as anyone. When something is wrong with your child you want it fixed and you’ll do anything to make it happen. When there is a “cure” you’ll preach it to the masses. Mothers on a mission are a very determined bunch. But, Jenny McCarthy put herself in the forefront of the anti-vaccination movement, and now she’s got an even bigger bulls eye on her. The “I told you so” contingent are taking aim. There are some sites that hold her personally accountable for vaccine-preventable deaths. For those who like to keep track of such stats, there’s the Jenny McCarthy Body Count.

We can’t blame it all on Jenny McCarthy, though. Both sides of the issue have had their say, often without science as the arbiter. It’s an incredibly emotional issue ruled by fear. Fear of what will happen if parents don’t vaccinate and fear of what could happen if they do. The Autism issue has been clouded by not enough people knowing, simply, not enough. In a stroke of interesting timing, Seth Mnookin’s upcoming book, “The Panic Virus” asks the question “Who decides which facts are true?”  It’s a compelling look at how conspiracy theories can take hold.

Celebrity activism can be a great gift. Look at George Clooney’s work on behalf of Darfur or Brad Pitt building sustainable homes in New Orleans. Oprah happens to be the most philanthropic celebrity (and wouldn’t you know Tiger Woods is up there as well – not counting the hefty donation he just made to his ex wife). Celebrities have the loudest voices when it comes to activism, and it is monumentally helpful for the causes they support – but what happens when the loudest voice is also the wrongest? That’s when things get complicated.

I personally don’t think officially calling Andrew Wakefield’s study fraudulent is going to change much in the anti-vax community. Many already think governments are suppressing the truth in an elaborate conspiracy, so this will only feed into that. The monster is out of its cage, and it’s going to be very difficult to put it back in. Celebrities- right and, alas, wrong - will continue to preach and there will always be those who will listen. Especially if Oprah gives them a platform.

Lori lives in the greater Cincinnati area. She’s a stay-at-home mom of two girls while her husband works to pay off her two college degrees. When not changing diapers or sorting coupons she can be found tweeting as @LoriNKY or blogging at Mish Mash Momma.

Photo of Jenny McCarthy via DoSomething.org and Bitten & Bound.

A lot of the buzz around who’d be the first guest on CNN’s new Piers Morgan Tonight revolved around plenty of hints it would be royalty. And sure enough, it is. Only it’s not royal-wedding bound Kate Middleton, it’s just Queen of Daytime TV Oprah Winfrey.

At the Television Critics’ Association meeting in Los Angeles, Piers Morgan made it official, Oprah will be first to undergo the Morgan Magic (he made Simon Cowell cry!) when his show debuts on January 17.

In announcing Oprah–and no disrespect whatsoever to her–Morgan appears to have failed in his publicly-stated goal of landing Kate Middleton. As Morgan told TV Guide:

I am working hard on getting that interview. I’ve known William a long time and I knew his mother, Diana, very well. I had a memorable lunch with William and his mother when he was 13. I spoke with her regularly on the phone. I’m a big monarchist. I think a royal wedding is very exciting.

I guess not. Perhaps Oprah got the Kate Middleton interview and, in the weird pecking order of celebrity interviews, that means Morgan gets Oprah and–just guessing–that means Barbara Walters will get the sit-down with Piers Morgan?

Oprah, who recently gave a revealing interview with Walters, has plenty to talk about. She’s ending her daytime show and has just launched the OWN cable television network. And let’s be thankful for Oprah. Access Hollywood suggested recently the first guest on the CNN show could be Kim Kardashian.

Watch the preview clip below:

The ladies (sans Diller, who, like certain viewers, sat half-smiling, half-praying that the noise to somehow stop) discussed Oprah Winfrey‘s new OWN network. Rivers offered an interesting little tidbit about Oprah’s climb to fame, telling Cooper that she had actually found Oprah in Chicago and convinced The Tonight Show to bring her on. She then joked (in that sort of “haha, but, no, really” manner we’re all too familiar with) that Oprah doesn’t exactly posses “fuzzy” feelings when it comes to Rivers.

Behar chimed in, saying Oprah’s decree that the word “bitch” would be banned from OWN effectively barred her, Rivers and Griffin from ever making it onto the network. Although maybe Diller still stands a chance.

Was anything else on? The debut of Oprah Winfrey‘s new Oprah Winfrey Network–OWN–was the curiosity of the New Year’s weekend, attracting respectable ratings, but making monster increases versus the cable channel OWN replaced, Discovery Health.

The welcome ratings news comes after plenty of criticism and some predictions that OWN would ultimately succeed.

When OWN launched at noon on New Year’s Day, a preview show posted a .7 household rating, according to Nielsen figures reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

As THR‘s Marisa Guthrie notes, that relatively small number hides a major industry success story:

That may not sound like much, but considering that it’s a 555% gain compared to the same time period four weeks ago and 1100% gain year-to-year, Winfrey and her team are probably breathing their first sigh of relief.

By the time OWN got to its first foray into primetime programming, ratings climbed to a 1.0 at 8 p.m., for increases of about 500 percent versus four weeks earlier and year to year. In prime, OWN did well among key demographics–the numbers most important to advertisers–with half a million viewers 25-54.

That was far better than Discovery Health’s year-ago averages for the night; 92,000 in 18-49 and 118,000 in 25-54. Among OWN’s target demographic of women 25-54, the network averaged a .9 rating (with 1 million total viewers) in primetime on Jan. 1. That helped propel OWN to the third most-watched cable network for the night (behind ESPN and USA) in the 8 and 9 p.m. hours. But by Sunday, OWN’s household number was down 33% in primetime.

Amid the football and hangovers of New Year’s Day comes a bit of television history: the launch of Oprah Winfrey’s brand new network, OWN, which began operations today.

Writing on The Root, Jennifer Mabry sums up her feelings about the Oprah Winfrey Network in one word: “disappointed.”

Mabry writes that she’d hoped to see Oprah enter the programming space and reinvent it–as she did when she began her talk show–”by being ambitious, adventurous and creative” instead of opting to “be part of its further degeneration by adding to an already glutted market of voyeuristic dreck.”

After a few hours of OWN, Mabry describes the driving philosophy behind the network as simple: “Find anyone with a heartbeat and a willingness to have cameras follow them during their ordinary day-to-day life, and voilà — we’ve got ourselves a TV show!”

Ouch.

Beyond the simple problem of being uninventive and boring, Mabry knocks Oprah for failing to bring diversity to her network:

Of course, Winfrey is free to choose how she spends her millions. But it’s disconcerting, to say the least, that of the breakout syndicated personalities she has helped to launch during her reign as the queen of media — Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Nate Berkus and Rachael Ray — none is a black male or female, sans (Gayle) King.

OWN is a missed opportunity for Winfrey to create cable television that’s truly FUBU: For Us, By Us.

That rush of of signings pushes Anderson to 80 stations across the country, meaning about 70 percent of television viewers will be able to watch the show when it debuts in the fall. That kind of solid performance–for an untested show–indicates a strong belief among local television station managers that Cooper’s got the stuff to fill a big gap in TV’s daytime: the departure of long-reigning daytime queen Oprah Winfrey.

As THR‘s Elizabeth Guider reports:

“The momentum for this show is robust,” said Meril, given how “quickly and aggressively” outlets have signed on. “Stations are recognizing ‘Anderson’ for both its instant wide-ranging appeal as well as its long-term franchise potential.”

In all, stations repping the Allbritton, Capital, Citadel, Cordillera, Cox, Fisher, Fox, Freedom, Gannett, Hearst, Hubbard, LIN, Local TV, Media General, Meredith, Midwest, Morgan Murphy New Vision, Newport, Northwest, Raycom, Sarkes Tarzian, Schurz, Scripps, Sinclair, Smith Media, Titan and Tribune groups have bought the strip.

Like gabbers Winfrey and before her Donahue, Anderson will target women looking to be informed and entertained, gain perspective and stay connected to the world around them.

Ms. Winfrey’s move from broadcast to cable is a transformative moment for the television business, marking the first time a talk-show host has taken over an entire channel. The stakes couldn’t be higher for Ms. Winfrey and the coterie of television veterans that has assembled around her. For someone who has enjoyed outsize victories in almost every venture she has pursued, OWN will be the ultimate test of her power.

“I’m prepared for all the critics, I’m prepared for all the naysayers and the ya-da-ya’s,” Ms. Winfrey says by telephone from Sydney. “The real truth is this: Everything I’ve ever done has prepared me for this moment, for this launch.”

“I look at this launch as the birthing of a baby, not the raising of a child,” she continues, managing expectations about the sure-to-be-low-rated early days of OWN. Child-rearing will mostly have to wait until after she tapes her final episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in May.

“It’s a long-term process,” she says, “and I have the vision to see what this network can be in 3 years, in 5 years, in 10 years, as an institution of hope and inspiration.”

At its core, OWN will try to embody Ms. Winfrey’s “live your best life” philosophy, and it will aim at the same audience as her current show — women from the ages of 25 to 54, says Christina Norman, the channel’s chief executive.

But OWN’s three-year gestation has been unusually arduous. Early on, Ms. Winfrey’s partner in the joint venture, Discovery Communications, grew frustrated, and as boardroom tensions boiled over early last year she considered backing out altogether. The relationship has improved markedly since then. But as recently as late November, some producers working with OWN still doubted that the channel would actually come to life in January.

Now, without a doubt, it’s coming. But it brings clear risks for Ms. Winfrey. She is swapping her broadcast stage — where nearly seven million fans watch her every day — for a cable platform that will be, at least at first, much smaller. For a time, she says, she lived in fear about the channel, even though she had fostered the idea for OWN for the better part of 20 years. And questions linger among some observers — like OWN’s future competitors at Bravo, Lifetime, WE tv and elsewhere — about her level of commitment to the channel.

Ms. Winfrey says she’s worried only about how well OWN is doing in “letting people know where the channel is.” (This month, Oprah.com features an OWN countdown clock and a channel-finder tool.)

Read the full story here.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jackman was rigged to a “flying fox,” which is a high-wire assembly that was to swoop Jackman through the air from the top of the Opera House and down onto Oprah’s Aussie set. HR reports the actor “hit the brakes” too hard and crashed into rigging for studio lights, injuring his face:

The Wolverine star was removed from the set bleeding from underneath his right eye. Winfrey suspended taping for the show for about 10 minutes to ensure that Jackman received proper medical attention. He later returned and carried on with his scheduled interview segment, sporting an adhesive bandage over the wound and a fresh, black eye but appearing otherwise unshaken. In an exhibition of true show-must-go-on spirit, Jackman also participated in a musical production number to close the show.

According to a report this morning in People, the accident upset Jackman’s young son:

“That’s gonna swell,” said Winfrey, 56, as Jackman returned with a small piece of tape under his eye and a visible bruise beneath it. The actor then headed down into the front row to comfort his son, Oscar, 10, who was upset by the accident.

“That was so much fun until the end,” he said. Referring the Winfrey’s previous guest, he added with a laugh: “Bono was meant to do this, but they couldn’t afford the insurance.”

The details are still mostly under wraps, with only tiny tidbits being hinted at in the 72-second teaser video. Oprah says “this is it,” and Sarah, Duchess of York says “it’s great… it’s exciting to be part of OWN.”

Oprah best friend forever Gayle King offers nothing more when she agrees that “we’ve got something really great on our hands.”

The video, posted on the OWN Blog, says only this:

Watch our stunning and heart-pounding new video featuring so many stars and so much energy that it will leave you breathless.

New shows. New faces. New possibilities.

What will you be watching on January 1st?

So there you have it. Now you know all we know about OWN.

Watch the video here, from OWN:

When Walters asked her subject how she’d feel if Palin decided to run for president in 2012, Oprah gave a cagey answer: “I wouldn’t feel anything. Obviously that would be her choice.” Walters pushed a bit, asking point-blank, “But do you think that Sarah Palin is qualified to be president?”

All she got was another nonanswer: “”I’m not going to answer that question. That’s good, Barbara but I’m not going to answer.”

“I tried,” replied Walters, noting that Oprah did “sort of answer.” See the moment in the clip below, from ABC.

[h/t Huffington Post]

In an excerpt from her upcoming A Barbara Walters Special: Oprah, The Next Chapter, which airs Thursday night on ABC, Walters asked about the unusual bond between Oprah and best friend Gayle King. “She is … the mother I never had. She is … the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don’t know a better person. I don’t know a better person,” said Oprah, who frustrated herself by crying when she apparently had decided ahead of the interview she would not.

Following up, Walters asked about “those…dumb rumors” that Winfrey and King are gay:

“I’m not a lesbian … I’m not even kind of a lesbian,” Winfrey said. “And the reason why it irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I’m lying. That’s number one. Number two … why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life.”

Oprah also revealed she had some doubts about her soon-to-launch network, OWN:

“At first, I thought, ‘Great, a network. Oh, gee, this is the dream I had.’ And … as that started to settle in with me, I thought, ‘Whoa! What is this I’ve gotten myself into? This is a lot more work than I ever imagined,’” Winfrey told Walters.

Winfrey said that taking on a whole new network is frightening.

“I was very scared … I would wake up in the middle of the night literally like clutching my chest, like, ‘What have I done? What have I done?’” she recalled.

Watch the interview here, from ABC:

“I have been here one hour and I’ve seen two koalas mating already,” said Oprah, who’s brough a full landing party of more than 300 audience members and a massive crew who will stage episodes of Oprah in Sydney.

Audience members arrived for their “Ultimate Australian Adventure” to a huge crush of reporters Monday, but the media horde went away disappointed with no sign of the Queen of Talk herself. One television network even urged its viewers to keep their eyes open and report any “sightings” of Oprah.

Winfrey made her first appearance Wednesday at the luxury resort at Hamilton Island in the fittingly-named state of Queensland, giving one lucky reporter an exclusive one-on-one, and describing a few of her favorite Aussies:

“Hugh Jackman. I like him a lot. Baz Luhrmann! Like him a lot. Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, like them a lot. The little Irwin girl, liked her a lot. But it’s the regular folks, you know, getting to know just regular people. Like them a lot. So it’s going to be exciting for us.”

The trip has gotten over-the-top coverage in Australia, with the Hollywood Reporter noting that it’s been compared to Queen Elizabeth II’s first visit over four decades ago.

Despite critics knocking the Australian government for pitching in to host the trip, the government Down Under says the trip–and the Australia-based shows that will be seen around the world–will be a boon to tourism:

Even before the travelers’ arrival, the Adventure has already raked in $17 million worth of coverage for Australia, according to Tourism Australia chief Andrew McEvoy.

He told the National Press Club last week that the Winfrey audience is a key target for the organization.

“Winfrey and her team will make at least four hours of dream come true television about Australia in this, her 25th and final season. Importantly, the program rates highest with above average income women aged 25-54. In our industry, they are the holiday decision makers,” he said.

If you enjoy the Aussie accent–and who doesn’t–you’ve got to watch the report on Oprah’s arrival, which includes–I kid you not–Oprah saying “the dingo ate my baby” and the Aussie reporter saying “they’re throwing shrimp on the barbie.”

Watch here, from Australia’s Ten Network:

As the Americans were mobbed at the airport in Sydney by camera crews disappointed to learn Oprah herself wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday, a newspaper headline screamed “Why Are We Paying For Rich People?”

The visit’s been billed as a boon to Australia’s tourism as the talk show star does a series of shows from the country and sends her audience on a tour of the Great Barrier Reef, the Tasmanian Wilderness and the country’s beaches. But some wonder if it’s worth the cost. Here’s a columnist in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Last I heard, Oprah Winfrey was earning around $220 million a year although one report puts that at $300 million. There is even a website where you can watch her income ticking over. The counter spins like a roulette wheel. This talk-show baby is seriously rich even by oil-soaked American zillionaire standards.

She arrives in Australia this week so explain again to me why Aussie taxpayers are chipping in towards her bills.

But forget about all that. Some Americans–including a woman who told reporters at the airport in Sydney she’d “never even won a goldfish” before–have landed a pretty sweet vacation. (And in case you were wondering if U.S. reporters ask the most inane questions on Earth, be assured it’s a global problem. One reporter asks a guy getting off the Oprah flight, “have you seen a kangaroo before?” Sigh.) Watch it, from the Herald:

Despite suggestions of executive turmoil at OWN and a report since shot down forcefully by the network that Oprah was negotiating with a top CBS executive to come aboard just weeks ahead of the launch, one top cable CEO says fear not: Oprah knows how to make good TV–and big money.

David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications–which is partnering with OWN–tells the Hollywood Reporter the new cable net has the potential to become a “big business:”

Zaslav reiterated that OWN may not immediately find its full voice, but will listen to viewer input to build it over time.

Discussing Winfrey’s involvement, he once again said “Oprah has had a great presence” preparing for the OWN launch. He also lauded her as “one of the rare talents that can generate talent,” pointing to the likes of Dr. Oz who will join her on the network.

OWN, which will replace the Discovery Health channel, is off to a strong start in the crucial area of advertising. Zaslav tells HR that “OWN is off to a running start thanks to a ‘strong’ upfront that yielded ‘meaningful’ ad rates and multi-year ad deals, Zaslav said. Up next, the company will focus on ‘pushing for subscriber fees.’”

According to a press release, Oprah and her former competitors will be discussing their experiences in daytime TV, as well as celebrating the final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show. If the crew could also take a few minutes to send some troubled teens to boot camp, we think the episode would be just about perfect.

It would also be great if this episode of Oprah worked as a sort of backdoor pilot for a new talk show, one featuring this dream team of former hosts sitting around and gabbing, View-style. We know we’d watch it; would you?

Photo courtesy of Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Photographer: George Burns.

Besides the fact that it should be huge for book sales, the former President also talks about the current political climate, his picks for 2012 and more.

If anyone thought former Pres. Bush would follow in the footsteps of former Pres. Bill Clinton, who has been extremely active on the campaign trail this year – think again. “I’m through with politics,” Bush tells Oprah. “It’s hard for people to believe. I already said that. I am through.”

For that reason, he wasn’t even going to comment on politicians, left or right. When asked about Pres. Obama, he said, ” I want to treat my successor the way I’d like to have been treated. I don’t think it’s good for a former President to be out there opining on every darned issue. He’s got a plenty tough job.”

And how about Sarah Palin? “I am not a political pundit. I’m really not. And secondly, a lot is gonna happen between now and the nominating process. I have no clue.”

Well it took Clinton a few years before he got back into the game – maybe if Jeb Bush runs for office we’ll see George W. come out of political retirement.

(The image above is from Bush’s 2000 interview with Oprah.)

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Abrams and Rebecca Nesler were Oprah Winfrey‘s guests today, Nesler returning for the first time to the program since she was nine years old. Abrams, who has covered the case and the family throughout the years, interviewed Rebecca on the trip up to the jail. Rebecca called her brother her “best friend” and expressed excitement and nerves at seeing him for the first time in two years. The pair, Abrams reported, spoke very much of their mother and their family life, and found Willie reflective and calm, although with significant signs of healing from the trauma. See the full report at Oprah.com.

The Nesler family segment from today’s Oprah below:

Noting Winfrey’s surprise visit to the Daily Show (and the free tickets to Washington, D.C. she handed out), Matthews sounded a bit confused as to what all those people are going to be doing in his neck of the woods, anyway: “for all the buzz, it seems no one really knows what this rally on the 30th of this month is going to be all about.” With that, he confessed, “Well, I’m going.”

While the rally is not entirely considered partisan, the fact that it was born as a reaction to Glenn Beck‘s Restoring Honor rally makes it at the very least somewhat of a left-wing affair, and Matthews has never shied away from being an open Democrat. However, his “I’m going” didn’t sound like he was making a political statement at all but, rather, like he is probably going to drop in to see what the noise was all about. The fact that he announced with subtly on his “Sideshow” segment is an even greater indication he’s not taking this completely seriously.

Even if he isn’t, the fact that Matthews has RSVP’d to the event is notable as some news organizations, most notably NPR, have explicitly forbidden their journalists from attending the rally. Matthews, of course, occupies a different and much opinionated space in the discourse, and it would make little sense for MSNBC to allow Ed Schultz to headline a rally in earnest and not allow Matthews to attend an ironic one.

Watch Matthews’ comments about the Rally to Restore Sanity via MSNBC below:

This is the sort of segment that actually fuels the handful Stewart’s critics who think that The Daily Show host has it both ways: he is given the freedom to play both comedic and serious sides of a topic, which effectively undermines his impact. Sure, many issues have absurd parts to it — take for example the backyard host warning his guests of fresh dog poop just before introducing the President of the United States.

But asking the nation to ignore the crazy extremism that runs rampant in opinion media and the current political landscape, and at the same time criticizing the President for “being boring?” Well, somehow it feels like a cheap shot. Watch the clip below and see for yourself.

The mogul recently sat down with Fortune‘s Patricia Sellers to discuss the evolution of OWN and how exactly she’ll be making the transition from running her talk show in Chicago to running her network in Los Angeles. It’s going to be a big job—albeit one that’s, at least potentially, going to be incredibly lucrative:

By populating and evangelizing on OWN 24/7 — a daunting 1,200 hours of programming a year — Oprah realized that she had the opportunity to increase her impact on the world and make some nice money along the way. Bank of America Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen thinks that OWN will attract more than $145 million in ad revenue in its first year of operation. (That would put OWN in the league of such cable networks as The Weather Channel and Animal Planet, according to SNL Kagan.) Depending on ratings, it could turn a profit of $100 million in year three and grow significantly from there — making it one of the most successful media launches this past decade, rivaling the introduction of O, The Oprah Magazine, a partnership of Harpo and Hearst, in 2000.

Not that any of this matters to “authentic” Oprah, who insists she cares more than anything about being true to her viewers. “My fear about ‘Will the people really follow me?’ — I’m past that,” says Oprah. This past summer, she says, she was reading a magazine article about Michael Jackson and was riveted by a quote from a former colleague of the late superstar. The friend said that after Jackson released Thriller in 1982 and it became the all-time best-selling album, he was paralyzed by the notion that he could never top that. “All the bells went off,” says Oprah. “This is why I lived in fear about this network. I kept thinking I have to repeat the 25-year phenomenon of the Oprah show.” She adds: “I don’t want to be Michael Jackson.”

Later, Sellers writes that OWN might be worth a staggering $3 billion “in a few years,” which would make it a match for Winfrey’s own $3 billion net worth.

The interview isn’t all about money. Winfrey also reveals what sorts of programs will appear on OWN. Unsurprisingly, the slate is filled mostly with uplifting reality shows and showcases for Winfrey herself. It includes Kidnapped by the Kids, a series in which “the children of work addicts literally capture their parents and take away their e-mail access and office time until they change their ways;” a six-part docuseries starring Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, as she adjusts to life without her fortune; a new talk show hosted by Rosie O’Donnell; and Oprah’s Next Chapter, a follow-up to Winfrey’s talk show that will “show her running around the globe, exploring places she’s never been, like the Sahara desert, and interviewing locals.”

There will also be a reality competition series called Your Own Show, in which wannabe Winfreys will battle to win their own talk show on OWN.

You can read the Fortune cover story in full here.