How do I create my own TV show? by Kyle Phoenix

Its not that hard, I’ve had my own show, The Kyle Phoenix Show, for 13 years now, we’re going into Season 50 in 2022. (Each season is 13 episodes.)

It’s a series of Medium Hards to Very Hards to Extremely Hards.

Medium Hard

Working out the deal with network. And understanding what I wanted from the deal and what was required of me and what I could and could not deliver. Luckily I had a business background, entrepreneurial track record and business education so I could think about my nascent TV show as a product.

Secondly, I’m a big fan of Harpo, Inc. Oprah Winfrey’s company. Notice I didn’t say Oprah, though I think she’s cool, smart, insightful, talented, etc..—-but what really interested me over the years as a small business owner was how she thought about herself and business and how Jeffrey Jacobs, the first President of Harpo thought about business and media.

1. Oprah/Jeffrey Rule # 1-Own your work/creations.

• I was working for a non-profit and a TV-cable production crew came to the office and asked to film our special events, particularly a Thanksgiving yearly dinner that had about 300 attended. They explained that they had a deal with the public access network of the borough of Manhattan and would provide all the equipment, production team, etc.. The agency said yes and for about a year, the staff and I were broadcasted, our interviews, all throughout the 5 boroughs, and farther, of New York City.
• I went to the Executive Director, having researched the public access network, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, MNN, noticed they had a Youth Training program (and I was my agencies’ Youth Coordinator) and suggested that along with the magazine he was producing, he give me the go ahead (and maybe some cash) to get my youth into the MNN program and we work out a way to also film the half dozen men’s group—- several I was teaching/facilitating. We could then broadcast them throughout the boroughs—-our event dinner having brought in attention and members—-but these episodes on a continuous basis. Having checked their numbers, MNN, part of Time Warner’s Community Benefits agreement and therefore piggybacked onto Time Warner, RCN and Comcast, estimated about 50,000 to 500,000 viewers per show, based upon borough able subscribers. But MNN picked up all of the production and distribution costs and provided cameras, lights, mics, editing bays, everything. All one had to do was take their free trainings so as to use the equipment properly and safely.
• He said No that he wanted to focus all of the agency’s energy (and money to the tune of $100,000) on a magazine. The magazine was like a gay Black Vogue—-that only 4 of the us 15 staff members, could afford to shop from and folded in less than a year, after 4 issues. It was too high end and didn’t include the men from the groups talking about their lives and the staff, who rebelled, talking about their work. Basically it was a glam masturbation high gloss flop. But it got me thinking about Oprah, O Magazine and Rosie O’Donnell’s failed magazine.
• A year later, I was teaching a vocational class/MS Office Suite and one of my adult students mentioned a friend of his had been on American Idol, didn’t win but had found some success making videos, posting them on YouTube and monetizing them. Tony Robbin’s Personal Power 2 teaches that if an idea strikes you, you must act upon it in 24 hours. What struck me was that I was thinking, watching, contemplating TV/film, video/online classes, teaching—-what would, could that look like?
• This idea came from at the same time, at the teaching job, my supervisor approached me that in the Microsoft/SUNY partnership that sponsored my project, they wanted to use their super high tech 80″ touch screen with high resolution cameras to beam my classes to 30+ SUNY campuses—-Wasn’t that exciting? Yes! I enthused then queried: But how would we get an envelope big enough? Big enough for what? she asked. Big enough to house the 30+ other paychecks besides my current bi-weekly one for the 30+ other sites my classes were being broadcast to? Auntie Oprah called that syndication. And further, how would I ensure that once broadcasting such a set curriculum, I wasn’t simply recorded and fired at the conclusion of the class? And three, since we were there—-how much was SUNY getting per student/tuition for my classes and why was I being paid so little for this “audience”? And fourth, I had started a production company (I had a few months before that, the American Idol friend student was in that class) and was producing YouTube videos, educational ones. What would be my ownership cut, ownership of the classes, re-broadcast rights?
• Yeah, that ended there. But, what it did was prompt me to look at YouTube monetization vs. TV show ownership and monetization.
• I compared YouTube, MNN and a third, that was similar to Vessel (a hybrid of YouTube) and because MNN offered full ownership of all materials and full use of their state of the art Manhattan studio and equipment and staff for first right broadcasts, I went with MNN.

Kyle Phoenix

 · 2y

How did Oprah Winfrey build her business?

Ownership of Self /Products Most entertainers don’t own their work. In it’s entirety. The reason why is simple, it’s costly to produce and distribute work—-film,TV, radio, the internet one of the few recent democratizers in the 21st century of cost to distribute. For 25 years the Oprah Winfrey Show was produced, to the total of 4500+ shows after Oprah and Jeffrey Jacobs, lawyer and eventual President of Harpo, Inc.renegotiated the initial contract she was offered of $250,000 a year for 4 years for what would have been 800+ shows. As just the Talk Show Host. By renegotiating and establishing a company that would solely own the show and produce it, she/Harpo, Inc., took on the responsibility of housing and producing a show—-directors, producers, guests, etc.—-all the things a TV studio requires—-plus equipment. What Jeffrey did was essentially estimate the revenues that King World, the distributor and ABC/Cap Cities—the TV network——would earn in the totality of the show then—1986, approximately $120 million and negotiate for 1/4 of it as the show was one fourth of the element of production. $30 million, per year. For Years 1–4, for approximately 220+ shows to air daily, at 4pm across 226+ markets (TV zones/TV stations) across teh USA and then eventually 140+ countries. Like an IPO, Oprah and Jeffrey went on the road and got investments to build a studio, first renting space and equipment, before the show was even broadcast. TV Markets Essentially there are markets or stations in every region of the country. There were 220+ throughout the USA then. Each one of those stations, based upon advertising dollars pays the Production Studio/Distributor a fee for episodes or packages of shows that air. The deal was that instead of King World having to assume responsibility, Harpo, Inc. would, for getting the show to the stations/network (ABC/Cap Cities—-the umbrella network to bundles of stations). For that effort, Harpo got its 25% cut as it solely owned, and therefore controlled The Oprah Winfrey Show. Every contract negotiation with King World and then ultimately with ABC Cap Cities, whom the bundles funnel money to network distribute, then cuts KW 220+ checks—-and KW then splits off Harpo’s share—-Harpo would renegotiate the amount of payouts. Ownership happened incrementally from KW to Harpo. * Year 1–25% * Year 2–50% * Year 3–75% * Year 4–100% Year 4 the contract is coming to a close but by then Oprah is a hit, Donahue has folded and now Harpo can really renegotiate because it has full ownership of itself and a fully operation studio and most importantly a valuable salable product. ABC/Cap Cities, even King World, aren’t the only broadcast/distribution game in town (on TV) so KW, the distributor, is pressed to lock Oprah down into their own contrcats. The boon to Oprah was that King World was also the creator/owners/distributors of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune—-this allowed a “natural” TV bloc from 12 noon of Ryan’s Hope, Loving, All My Children, One Life to Live General Hospital and then Oprah, Local News The next times of contract renegotiation—-in increments of 3, 5, 3, 2, etc. years—-Jeffrey Jacobs negotiates for pointed changes. * Years 1–4 was 220+ shows a year. * Years 5 to 25 and onward 200, 180, will be less shows but for the same 25% cut of teh entire pie revenues—-the numbers steadily going downward until the final two years was 130 episodes due a season (year.) Why? The value of the shows increases when you make less but at the same valuation budget. So by the end the show had balanced out at a $50 million dollar season production budget. $50 million divided by 220 episodes= $227,000 valuation an episode. $50 million divided by 130 episodes= $384,000 valuation an episode. Now calculate at the $384k valuation each show times 4561 episodes=$1,751,424,000. Which is how she became a billionaire. But you can’t pay Harpo entirely in cash, so one of the things they began negotiating for was stock in King World and ABC/Cap Cities. Eventually Paramount buys KW and Disney ABC/Cap Cities and then Viacom buys Paramount. Which means that Oprah owns a piece, a large percentage, between 2%-5% of ViacomCBS because her shares of the previous companies were converted to Viacom shares and Disney shares. Selling Your Product Again The challenge of having this library as an asset was that yes, it has this value. Yes, there is stock that you can borrow against for cash, you have cash in the bank, you can even sell some shares for cash but you still have this library of assets sitting on servers and in storage rooms. What to do? Along comes Discovery Networks and offers Harpo one of it’s 8 channels to brand with Oprah and do as she likes. To infuse Oprah with it. She can then produce new content for Discovery—-keeping a large portion of her staff employed and Harpo productive and profitable without out of pocket expense as Harp itself is restructured beyond simply being a company that produces Oprah present content. The issue Harpo was always worried about was that so much of their content was Oprah dependent. They needed to get into the production/film business and have it be Oprah blessed/sanctioned/produced—-with them moving their viewers and subscribers from the show and magazine to this new content. Harpo turns and says what we’d like to do is re-play our shows on the channel continuously and re-splice segments of them into a 100 episodes. A Best of Collection of shows. She has so much content that she’s eager to replay it somewhere and she already has a valuation on episodes of what to charge a network. Now here’s where it gets fun. The Harpo deal with Discovery is simple—- * Discovery puts up the channel, the distributor, the cash, the infrastructure, finds the advertisers and * Harpo will put up Oprah and slowly integrate the Harpo staff from Chicago to the new California OWN offices (whomever wants to come). The future lies in California, closer to not only Discovery but also other studios, the Chicago Harpo studios, which take up four city blocks, without The Oprah Winfrey Show as the cash cow, aren’t worth keeping open. The cost of shipping everyone to Chicago when space is available around the country/world as a production studio that will provide 20+ hours of shows, means that Harpo is no longer a stationary company. Oh, and Oprah has moved to California to a big estate. Harpo follows her. There is already another deal with Sirius XM to rebroadcast old TOWS and new radio shows with her and her friends for $50 million dollars. This will act as two things—-bridge money and advertisement for the OWN Network itself. Discovery puts up the cash, totaling between $330 to $500 million, over the course of several years to develop 20+ hours of programming. But, consider this, there are now 30–50 shows that Harpo has produced to go onto OWN. As a production studio it still makes a revenue profit as it sells the shows to the network, Discovery/OWN, and Discovery foots the bill to buy them—-the charge going back to Harpo as revenue. In essence Oprah owns half of the store that buys exclusively from her that she didn’t have to put any money into…and she has a high level of control over what the store buys from her. With this level of leverage she’s able to bring in Tyler Perry (he gets 9–10% of the 50/50 split from Harpo Discovery deal as an ownership stake), Ava Duvernay (gets a full wraparound do whatever you want deal), Iyanla Vanzant and stellar others (this takes time—-the first 1–7 years of the initial Harpo/Discovery) to develop scripted television to slowly build the stable of shows for viewers, to find the right mix. Harpo—-50% owner of Rachael Ray, Nate Berkus, Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s shows is also able to bring/sell/lease that full library to Discovery as well. But where does Discovery get the money from to buy shows from Harpo? And eventually other studios, like Tyler Perry Studios? You Give Oprah Some of Your Paycheck OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network In 2011, Oprah bid goodbye to her daytime TV show and launched the cable channel OWN in partnership with Discovery Communications. In December 2017, Discovery purchased 24.5% of OWN from Oprah, leaving her with 25.5%. Forbes estimates that Oprah’s share of OWN is worth about $75 million. Profits from 25 Years Of The Oprah Show, Reinvested Forbes estimates that profits from over 25 years of the successful Oprah show, plus profits from films like The Color Purple, Beloved and Selma (which her Harpo Productions co-produced) add up to nearly $2 billion, after taking out estimated taxes and assuming that the funds have been invested over time. Harpo itself is likely worth another $150 million. In 2015 the cable licensing fees are renegotiated across the board. Essentially how cable TV works is say you pay a flat fee of $100 to your cable company, let’s say on Time Warner/Spectrum, for all the Basic and Premium channels. The networks themselves then deal with the cable companies for the price/piece of what they sell, what the agreement is with Time Warner and what Time Warner pays per channel. Discovery is paid $0.15 x 8 (channels) or from $1.20 to $1.50 per subscriber per month, that they can show comes into, uses/watches their channel, that it is offered to. This is why cable companies have a box that broadcasts and measures who’s watching what so that they can figure out how much they owe to whom based upon popularity and agreement. But unlike TV network ratings—-where popularity is paramount to success, agreement is paramount in cable TV world. For simplicity sake, let’s say there are 100 million subscribers to Discovery’s 8 channels as part of the package deal with Time Warner, RCN, Comcast cable companies. Every month Discovery gets a check for $150,000,000. Every month Discovery then divides that by 8. OWN/Discovery Channel # 8 gets $18,750,000 a month, $2,062,500-Tyler Perry’s cut (9-10%) per month $9,375,000-Oprah’s cut (25.5%) per month Discovery takes the remainder per month. $225,000,000 per year which if you divide it, splitting profits after Discovery covers costs—-is $112,625,000.00. Now reel it back to TOWS days, a $50 million dollar budget against profits, at 1986 rates of $120 million. By 2011, over $200+ million a year. But that $112,625,000.00 has to cover Discovery’s nut and then Harpo’s production cost for all of the shows it’s producing for the network. How did Oprah Winfrey become the only female African-American billionaire on the Forbes list of America’s richest? Decades of hard work, building her daytime Oprah talk show into a must watch for her core audience. Forbes has been tracking Winfrey’s fortune since 1995, when she joined The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans with a net worth of $340 million. Today she’s worth an estimated $3–4 billion. She then renegotiated Harpos’ contract with Discovery to shift her ownership stake from near half to reduce her ownership stake to 25.5% because Discovery was taking over Scripps TV and needed to essentially in a very simplistic financial explanation way “puff up” it’s size/value. So Discovery buys out her percentage down to 25.5%, valuing it at $70+ million BUT to re-compensate her in their need to puff up, they hire her as the CEO of her own partnership venture and her annual salary for the 7 years of her contract from 2016 on is $70+ million a year for 7 years PLUS her company gets the accruing value of her 25.5% ownership stake/value in the company she runs. PLUS all of the shows on OWN are either from her initial Harpo stable of partnerships or new shows where she gets a production piece of each, with Discovery putting up more than 60% of the cost/expenses AND providing OWN with a building/studios at no cost to Harpo. She then sold and demolished the Chicago studios to McDonald's for $32 million. Harpo then turns to Apple TV, having proven themselves in the TV, radio, magazine, film and cable arena and says we have both content and viewers/paying subscribers so let’s make product on your platform that serves 1 BILLION viewers around the world. So let’s say Oprah/Harpo brings from all of this a minimum of 2 million new subscribers a month to Apple TV $4.99 to $9.99 for Premium subscription—-that’s $10–20 million a MONTH. $120 million a year in probably a 3–7 year deal. Harpo can probably pull together a consistent 2–4 million. $250 million a year from Apple TV $100 million+ a year from Discovery (plus ever increasing value of the remaining 25.5%) Then there are the other ventures, that synergistically push revenue and support back into Harpo. Here’s a guide to her assets: Weight Watchers Winfrey bought 10% of the weight loss firms’ shares in October 2015 for a total of $43 million, paying $6.79 a share. Looks like she bought in at the right time. As of late Tuesday January 9, the shares are worth more than 8 times what she paid for them – a total of $365 million. Real Estate Winfrey’s 42 acre estate in Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara, is assessed at $95 million. Other properties she owns in Santa Barbara, Maui, Colorado and Nashville are worth another $117 million combined, at least. Total estimated real estate holdings: $210 million. And all of these assets is INCREASING in value, slowly but surely. Next time you pay your cable bill, know that you just slipped Oprah some cash. Or download on ITunes (you know Harpo gets upfront payments for production from the Apple coffers right?) An excellent long term business strategy that will eventually eclipse others as Harpo pulls in hundreds of millions, half a billion a year. The below answer goes into the intricate history of setting Harpo up to be able to so deftly do the above. Kyle Phoenix's answer to Why is Oprah Winfrey so rich? #KylePhoenix #TheKylePhoenixShow

Very Hard

Oprah Rule # 2- Excellence is the Best Deterrent (to sexism, racism, all “-isms”) and the Goal of All Productions

Juggling taking a slew of Production, Camera and Editing classes while working full time and then consulting and then entering back into graduate school around teaching/education.

Intellectually, it wasn’t that hard because in high school I’d written and directed a screenplay for the teen Soap Opera Club and then some of us got into an advanced program at Long Island University Film School for 2 years——so I had some basic to intermediate editing, production experience. (I’ve never shared this before but I overhead several of the teachers talk about how in the class of a dozen I was the most promising/talented. There was another young man, Jagdesh who I thought was just as good as me—-he had a sharp camera and editing eye for a 16 year old. I had an idea years later that from their training and eye for potential that if I nurtured and enhanced with new technology, I might be able to produce a weekly TV show.)

What’s Very Hard was designing a Concept. I originally was set on an LGBTSGL show—-essentially teaching on TV what I had taught thousands in workshops then eventually throw in some interviews. I had plenty of material from facilitating and knew lots of people so it was seemingly simple. But teaching in person and teaching online and then teaching on TV are 3 entirely different but related beasts.

1. Teaching in person there is immediate feedback, even if it’s silence. There’s a level of performance and congeniality that works and I've taught adults of all ages, children, teachers professionals, community activists, politicians, etc..
2. Teaching online I was able to do from my 2nd bedroom with a web cam and a under $100 editing software (yes, you can still find my initial forays online because they add to the Extremely hard elements, easing that some. I’ll explain later.)
3. Teaching on TV there’s no one there. You’re both the teacher, student, audience, critic. I had to learn how to pose questions, ideas AND answer them clearly and succinctly, in one or two ways, like students would. I had to become teacher AND student, in a naturally expressive, non-condescending way.

In 28 minutes.

My show has always been 28 minutes—-which really isn’t 28 minutes, closer to 26. And in those 26 to 28 minutes, here’s what it generally breaks down to:

1. Intro and Special Effects (PowerPoint slides, animation, graphics)
2. Voiceover During Intro
3. Show Title (PowerPoint)
4. Episode Title/Explanation (PowerPoint/short intro video)
5. Kyle Intro (Lead In to Topic)
6. (Maybe) Kyle With Guest (Guest prep is generally weeks to secure and schedule, over a week for pre-production and then directly, one to two hours of in studio taping ahead of video taping/assembly post-production. It’s almost a dry run of the interview where I “teach” them the beats of how we’ll have a discussion on camera. I also have emailed them about 40 general questions—-favorite this and that, best time in your life, how do you deal with burn out, where did you grow up, family compositions, hopes, dreams—-you want fall back questions in case they (or I) go numb or dumb, during an interview. We also talk about things they might not feel comfortable talking about—-I don’t do “Gotcha!” interviews so I very directly ask—-what don’t you want to talk about?—sexuality, HIV status, divorce, child abuse, sexual abuse, felonies, alcoholism—-stuff I might know or they might say on TV because TV AND THE INTERNET ARE FOREVER. I stress this about 50x for weeks. Also all legal forms have to be signed and filed before filming. I also am constantly aware of this in my own head as I talk about myself, personal thoughts and ideas, feelings, political thoughts, religious ones, jokes. It is literally the most conscious form of talking/performing/teaching I’ve ever done. It’s like dancing with a loaded gun in front of an audience of blindfolded people——I could accidentally say something about someone and “shoot” them—but the audience also has loaded guns—-so if I say something they might shoot me—-so I have to qualify everything, everything, everything, I say on TV. Everything.)
7. Kyle Teaching Material (Kyle Raw Video talking to Topic)
8. PowerPoint Slides and Lower Third (Name, Title, Email for Kyle and Guests)-Pre/Post-Production (it can change in style, color, titles—-Host, Author, Topic of that specific show.)
9. Perhaps a Supporting short video (copyright issues/cost)
10. Soundtrack music (I eventually bought Royalty Free Music to use)
11. Slides with Voiceover (optional)
12. Closing (Kyle Raw Video, perhaps Set Up for Parts 2, 3, 4, etc. or Next Week’s Episodes)
13. Closing Soundtrack—-might be different from opening
14. Closing Graphics
15. Production and Copyright Slides (The Omni Group, Inc.—-my company)
16. Staff Involved Titles/Credits (sometimes just me, Guests, Camera folk)
17. MNN closing materials

I’ve got it down now but the above took about 2–3 years to get a workable system, a level of professionality, accurate software usage, understanding how to gel an idea in my head, to laying out as an episode or series of episodes. What works and doesn’t work and why.

Very Hards

Pre-Production/Post-Production

You initially think pre-production, getting all of the pieces together and not forgetting anything, is hard—-that’s how you know you’re in Basic Level land. But soon you realize that to get to Intermediate Level land you have to sort of redo all that you might instinctively do in Basic Land.

In Basic Land, you plan to press the record button, all the actions before then. In Intermediate Land you start looking at the show/episode from the inside, rather than the beginning. Advanced Land you look at the season, how episodes flow together, answer each other, support one another and then you get into technical minutiae and editing strategies.

Intermediate you consider the Production as a production first and then assemble the show. Advanced you already have down pat how to assemble the show, how to piece together a Production and you’re looking at the grand scheme of a season, a year.

Now in Advanced, after 13 years of 52 shows a year, I have templates set up—-for nearly everything.

I have computer File Folder Templates set up with 8 to 10 Folders so that I just copy and paste the Folder set and then start my Premiere Adobe editing software file in there.

I then also have my Seasons marked out, dated and then Episode numbers Folders and then a supporting Directory on each episode with info, facts, notations. If I ever learn how to time travel, I will go back and set myself up in 2009 with these systems, it will save years of headaches.

Other problems include equipment. I went with MNN because everything is state of the art and they have a well trained Production staff to help at a moment’s notice. Cameras, mics, lights, editing bays, first Final Pro and now Premiere (which several years ago, I just went ahead and bought a subscription for—-so I can edit at home).

Which leads us to Very Hard # 1

Very Hard # 1-Editing

It seems easy in theory, even when you’ve taken some classes/lessons. But every 28 minutes to 48/56 minutes of broadcast time takes a set amount of time sitting at a computer editing. 28 minutes, if I want it to be good is 10+ hours. At the MNN studio you can set reservations to use their editing bays in increments of 4 hours or longer if no one shows up with a reservation after yours. You can now see why I eventually stopped trying to juggle my schedule and their reservations, alongside dozens of other producers/production teams, and just bought the Premiere software, now part of an Adobe software subscription.

The upside is my software is always automatically updated or glitches fixed because it comes directly from Adobe. The con is $30+ a month for something I need for production but don’t own.

Editing is an art and a software science. I’ve been hardcore at Premiere for about 5 years now and I use maybe 20–40% of it well. Each season I try to add in a new feature, trick, to simply get better. But the basics are demanding enough. It’s like a digital puzzle or collage that you’re trying to assemble. You end up mumbling to yourself a lot and being really, really, insanely proud of transitions and video sweeps and very, very small things that no one but you and another editing geek will see.

But over time the final product, if you’re doing it yourself, becomes noticeably better.

Very Hard # 2-Production

Putting together the concept of a show is easy at first—-”I’ll just teach sex and sexuality on TV like I do in person!” Kyle said innocently.

The function and action and outcome(s) are 3 different worlds.

Very Hard # 2-Concept Function

Yes, I sit down—-I have planning journals for everything—-and I I figure out Episodes #600 through #625. Right now I'm in Post-Production on a chunk of in-series mini-series titled—-LGBTSGL Issues:

1. HIV-6 episodes (already aired)
2. Domestic Violence-4 to 6 episodes (to air starting January 2022)
3. Drugs/Alcohol 2–4 episodes (to air starting February 2022)
4. Mental Illness 2–4 episodes (to air starting February/March 2022)
5. Closetedness/Being DL 2–4 episodes (to air starting March 2022)
6. Financial 10–13 episodes (to air March through June 2022)
7. Entrepreneurship 4–13 episodes (to air June Through September/October 2022)
8. Open/Flexible, Interviews & Repeats 13 episodes (to air through December 2022)

Off the bat, as I was prepping the outlines and materials for the above episodes I ran into scheduling problems. I’ve been reaching out to people, especially post-extreme COVID, to interview—— friends, former coworkers, teachers, activists, social workers, scientists, etc.. I also belong to a chamber of commerce and networking groups so I’m always waving the banner of Let Me Interview You! I’ve gotten great responses and interviews back.

Interviewed a good dozen and then there was a technical error with Adobe that trashed the video but Adobe offered to fix it with their special video scrubbers. of course this problem happened to not just my 20+ hours of footage (Interviews I generally do 2 hours to get every morsel out possible, to be divided into 4 full episodes and also broken down into dozens of pieces on a variety of subjects (1–3 snippets).

COVID Effects

But COVID changed some of my scheduling and in particular one interview subject I want to do, who has a COVID related business—-so I want to get her on-air in a relevant timeframe to COVID and the omicron variant. Which means that scheduling from November of LGBT Issues has to change.

BUT

The Next Season long chunk after the in-series on LGBT Issues, was a maxi-series planned focused on Financials from Budgeting, Checking Accounts, Savings, Roth IRAs, Insurance, Car Leasing, Home Buying Programs (FHA), 401ks, Taxes (With H&R Block Regional Manager Interview—-must air before April 15th), Investing, Stock Market Overview, How To Buy Stock, Being an Entrepreneur, etc., etc.—-breakdowns, explanations, videos over 16 episodes.

Now COVID (at least 4 episodes with Entrepreneur Interviews) by March? (Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurs in-series mini-series was to blossom from the end of the Financial after April 15th.)

Truncate Financial? Switch around LGBT Issues? Does it make concept sense to start on LGBT Issues so seriously, drop for Entrepreneurs, go back to Financial and then back to LGBT Issues?

This makes more sense when compared in the Very Hard area of Marketing, Publicity, Advertising where you might want to post your show’s schedule, to attract more viewers, so you can’t deviate. With MNN they make up a schedule based upon the submission of the digital file so it’s posted. Which means if I say something is Part 3 of 4, Part 4 should follow the following week.

Interviews

COVID also affected the MNN studio itself in that it has intermittently shutdown, opened limited hours, shifted its open hours, shifted its’ class times and therefore staffing and studio availability. Which means that I’ve had to purchase cameras and film at school/work or at home, which affects the quality of the year (s) of COVID timeframe episodes. I can borrow out camera and lighting set ups from the studio but that involves more scheduling time for a Field Unit. however I have looked at a flex share/office rental company near the studio, which is a few blocks from Columbus Circle, that I might be able to take the Field Unit to, interview the guests and return the Field Unit without having to worry about the safety of thousands of dollars of equipment for an extended period of time.

Panel Shows/Presentations and Speeches in Larger Venues

I’ve done two large/panel shows at a school conference I was presenting at and then at a community presentation. Again, difficult because of placement of cameras and sound and lighting, mainly. Another large gathering I did for a book presentation, there was literally a hurricane/rain storm that slowed us getting there so we lost a third of the audience (for their patience, I just gave away 20+ books) and then one of the 2nd camera didn’t work properly. On top of that for every show, everyone besides me must sign a release. The book presentation was on LGBTSGL sexuality so the audience was almost 1/3 on camera and 2/3s off camera in regards to their own personal privacy (I always repeat over and over and over—-the internet and TV are forever—-once I broadcast it and/or upload it, it’s been recorded somewhere else so someone else will re-post it). One of my students was acting as camera and sound so we had to essentially film from my side/shoulder to show the audience (that we could show) and me. Eventually in editing what I did was throwing in a lot of titles and pictures and short videos about what I was talking about to compensate for the video not being the strongest.

However the downside is that I would still have to provide additional cameras, in interviews I try to do a 3 camera set up, which is completely possible at the set up studios but difficult to create with lighting, cameras, staging in an elegant but non-set up for that purpose, office. In an interview, I’m trying to set up with something that looks like the below in the smaller studios. Camera 1 on me, Camera 2 on the guest—-both exclusively and then Camera 3 on both of us in a medium to long shot. It’s so static because then all I have to do in Editing is sync up the three videos—-Premiere is basically like a Lego set up—-you layer pieces of video, titles, sound on Tracks.

So I put Camera 1 on Video Track 1, Camera 2 on Track 2 and Camera 3 on Track 3—-the audio sets itself accordingly in order to the Audio Tracks. Then all I do is cut the pieces of the video until they all start at the point where the talking starts and then let it run and make cuts (to switch from me to the Interviewee’s face) or to Me exclusively or two the two of us. Which of course makes it easier to throw in titles and other supporting video clips when referenced by either of us.

But though the above sounds Basic (and to some degree it is) the art of the work is to consider how you, the audience see and experience the interview, capturing the speed of conversation, throwing in video referencing clips and hitting marks of faces when and when they don’t speak so that it looks like an interactive conversation that you’re witnessing. Getting that all to gel is where you move to Intermediate and Advanced levels.

The larger studio looks like this—-2 large studios and then 2 smaller ones for reservations—-which I might use for a large group interview and then I have to make sure I have extra camera people and a director to run the Master Board in the Control Room (which is in another space from the studio but looks like that person in the bottom of the picture).

Very Hard Addendum-Technology

It is always changing and advancing—-great in the sense that the studio and cameras are always up to date, trying in that I have a whole content library to drag along into the future. This digital snafu happened from the mediums we use changing:

1. Digital
2. Mini-DV
3. HD Disc
4. Cameras (the studios are top of the line, I’ve had to buy a couple of good ones and use webcams when not in the studio)
5. Laptops/Storage. The pieces of a TV show/video/film take up a lot of space. A lot. Right now a finished episode—-with video, sound and titles (all of that is like more and more on a breakfast plate) increases the “weight”/size of the final video. Every episode is generally between 1–2 gigs, depending on the complexity of the layers involved. This doesn’t take into account the pieces themselves which are inside of the 8 Folder system plus video divisions for YouTube, elsewhere.
6. Video-TV vs. Online-the working audience theory being that TV and film and video are different attention mediums. My show comes on 1130pm Thursday—-you sit down and have an expectation that it will end at midnight (which it does.) But a video online has a different attention expectation—-I can upload a 28 minute show and over time it will get watched by dozens, hundreds, over years—-thousands. But in the short term, it has to be cut into bite sized pieces. Those pieces are generally 1 to 3 or longest 8 to 15 minutes. (We keep experimenting with that.) But that means that the size of the Folders increases as there are several versions of each episode. One episode can have a Folder for just itself that is anywhere from 2–5 gigs, which means that yes, I have several large storage devices and then I have to back all of that up. Most of us buy LaCie drives. Several, eventually.

Very Hard # 3-Concept In Action/Production Issues

Host Mitigations

There’s a really great YouTube guy, funny, insightful, has good TV energy, speaks clearly, BUT he giggles/laughs nervously. A lot. Throughout his whole 7–12 minute segments. It becomes noticeable because it isn’t casually or occasional.

Over the years, and I even had a speech/voiceover coach go at and give feedback my work—-I have learned to speak in sentences and paragraphs—-cutting out as many “Ums” and “Uhs” as possible. Sounds easy. It is not.

• Speaking clearly from the diaphragm to the mic.
• Speaking fast enough to move through a script/teleprompter but slow enough to be understood.
• Speaking reasonably good English with reasonably good grammar.

TV/online heightens everything people see and hear about you because they are hyperfocused on you.

Like. The word like has been destroyed by the internet. It is literally like the KKK to me, especially when teaching. I hear it CONSTANTLY from people on subways, buses, walking, talking loudly on their cellphones.

It has become a cultural mitigation and placeholder for damn near everything because everything is like that time I like went down the road and I was like this is like the wrong road and I was like upset because I was like late and I didn’t want to be like late my first day of work because I wanted them to like like me and think I’m like responsible.

I stop students from speaking, throw out papers and assiduously avoid using like as much as like possible. So when outlining a TV script, I have to not just Grammarly it but also really think about alternative words and phrases, synonyms and antonyms. And enunciation and pronunciation. It’s even more difficult when you’re being videotaped because speaking/presenting in that way is similar to being in the front of your head projecting, and at the same time, consciously editing, as you hand the front of your head the next words.

What I’ve Learned Hosting

It is a slightly odd, presentational way of presenting-speaking because you have to think about pacing, clarity and editing. (Sometimes I have to edit on a word, a breath, the end of a point—-so it helps in post-production if I’m clear in being taped.) But I have to think about these things while speaking on camera.

Wholly projecting presence but detached and (mental) editing, being and bringing forth a sentence, idea, thought—-a step, a beat, sentence ahead—-knowing where I’m going with a full thought, what I’m going to say—-is a skill that has taken me years to learn and I’d say I’m at Intermediate now. If you watch really good, Advanced interviewers, you’ll know it because it seems like a casual conversation to them but then watch it a second time, and mark how they steered the conversation and questions, not just from notes but from listening and going off-script.

For a while you’ll sound false to yourself as you’re editing or helping edit your footage—-suddenly you’re of 213 minds because it’s You, you’re listening to You and considering Yourself as you know You videotaped was considering you now, considering yourself and You may've done things then to help You now make You then look and sound better.

And it gets even freakier because there might be a time lag from when you taped to when you edit—-sometimes as long as months before you use footage. I am digitizing mini-DV taped episodes and classes (I tape about 80% of the classes I teach) and there are times, honest to God, I see it’s me but I have no idea when that happened, what the topic was, that I even did that topic BUT (a writing mitigation), you suddenly know YOUR thought on the topic and what you would say and 99% of the time, it’s what you do say on tape. It’s not a memory, it’s when you see YOU and your thought processes on tape. Which can awe, marvel and freak you out at the same time.

Appearance

I’ve tried to always wear a jacket, tie, dress shirt. Sometimes I’ve tried to go casual—-sweater, casual shirt and it doesn’t look right depending upon the topic. Know your best colors, no stripes, no lines, it creates moiré

Moiré pattern occurs when a scene or an object that is being photographed contains repetitive details (such as lines, dots, etc.) that exceed sensor resolution. As a result, the camera produces strange-looking wavy patterns, similar to the ones below:

Go for neutral or green screened backgrounds that complement your outfit. And also tell your guests how to dress. But know that Green Screen—-dropping in a background—- adds to editing time so clean, neutral backgrounds are easier.

Concept Outcome

Every show is never what I imagined it to be or become. However over the years that’s gone from a head cocked sideways puzzlement (every tic you’ll scrutinize of yourself to remove—-and establish this weird other persona that watches yourself and self-corrects) to the quality of the raw footage, it gets better and better and better as I assemble the pieces in Premiere timelines and match colors and palettes and sounds and seamless video snippets and snatch out great micro-scenes. It/you will get better. You just won’t see it until you have work to look back upon, 2–5 years later.

Concept Outcome-Financing

Though it’s through public access, which means that the cable company—-Time Warner, now Spectrum——-uses some of its’ profits from cable paying customers in a region, here a borough, to build a studio for public productions (to facilitate free speech, non-hogging and controlling of all airwaves due to technology and money), there are still costs.

• The equipment-in studio cameras, mobile hand held cameras, monitors, decks for tapes, etc.
• studio lights
• mics
• staff
• computers
• Premiere program
• editing bays-time
• electricity (lots of electricity)—-all of that you have to figure into the cost of your TV show.
• Plus time (28 minute episodes for me)—-how long the show is and then the approximate time of how long pre, post production takes and what the billable hours are by talent and staff.

Show Valuation-The Business of TV

The above is where you have to pay attention as a Producer/Owner of the show. What does it overall cost? Whose paying for what? What is a company expense and therefore a deduction?

Further, and deeper, to the future——what does a production/episode cost?

Totaling equipment usage, staff time (pay rates) and all of the soft costs (software, editing bays, travel, etc..) plus any associated costs to guests (I try to do a pre-dinner with them, some shows put folks up in a hotel overnight) and then the salary of Hosts, Producers, etc..

Again, Harpo, Inc./Oprah helped me in a Fortune magazine article where they pressed Oprah to example some business acumen and she explained the things she understands directly and broadly and the other things she relied on Jeffrey and others to codify. One point was about the annual budget for TOWS because the budget is attuned to the valuation of each episode which goes back to how much they can be sold/monetized for.

To Harpo, they were initially doing 220 shows a year, each contract negotiation forward from 1986 was to do less shows but for the same production fees thereby increasing the value/worth of each episode. So they started at 220 episodes and twenty five years later produced 130+ but for the “same” valuation. (She said to her production President that $50 million a year was a good ceiling to not go over—-which if you do the math backwards means that in 1986 an episode was “worth” $227k. By 2009, only producing 130 shows, the valuation was $385k+ per episode.)

Kyle Phoenix

 · 3y

Why is Oprah Winfrey so rich?

Several men cued her on, some women pitched in and some unique, strong arm, money generating tactics and wild strategies were applied that had never been done before in quite the same ways. The King Brothers Discover A Potential Star Oprah is doing her People are Talking talk show in Baltimore, she’s doing okay. Making over $100,000 a year in the early to mid-1980s. She’s starting to get better and better ratings. King World, the King brothers, come to her and say we can make you a star, we’ll take your show national and you’ll go head to head with Donahue. And we’ll pay you $250,000 a year. Roger King and Michael King owners of King World in partnership with Oprah Winfrey and with her, launched Harpo Productions' successful The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986, which eventually led to the creation of the spin-off series Dr. Phil, 2002 as well as the latest Harpo Productions contribution, Rachael Ray. Bill Cosby Hips Her To Fish, Pointedly Piranha Oprah is ecstatic. She goes to friends, the Cosby's, Camille and Bill. He tells her that she has a problem. “What’s my problem?” “You’ve been offered $250,000 because of your agent.” “That’s a good thing, right?” “Sister (he calls her sister), it’s not a good thing. They like your agent at King World, that will distribute the show, at ABC Cap Cities, that will broadcast the show they like your agent. They like him so much that’s your problem. “When they see my agent coming down hallways at TV studios, networks, anywhere, people get scared. Because when they see him it means one of two things: I want more money or I’m unhappy and my agent is a piranha. You’re being offered chump change, sister, because they don’t fear your agent. “You need a piranha. I know a guy, he’s just starting out but he’s smart as a whip. Jeffrey Jacobs. Also, he’ll talk to you about why I’m wealthy. They might be offering to make you only rich, for just a little while, and how to change that.” “Ok, Bill. I’ll go see Jeffrey Jacobs.” Enter Jeffrey Jacobs, Oprah’s net worth is less than $1 million Jeffrey Jacobs for years would not allow his pic to be published….but in retirement, he now teaches in California, he has allowed so. I keep a picture of him on my desktop. You’ll see why. Oprah in a t-shirt and flip-flops makes her way to Jeffrey’s office, King World and Cap Cities contracts in hand. Jeffrey reads her contract and says with deep sincerity. “You can sign this contract. You can sign it if you’re willing to be nothing more than a slave.” “Excuse me?” “This is a slave contract. Slaves work for a fixed dollar. They’re willing to bank on a national show. This contract is for 4 years, totaling $1 million dollars, an effort to make you a highly paid slave. Now there’s a thing called syndication that they’re going to market this through.” “Yeah, my friend Robert Ebert, the movie critic, was explaining it to me one night. He took me out to dinner and he was explaining how him and Gene Siskel held out for a piece of the show’s syndication revenue but had to take on production costs but it’s where the money is. I think that’s the kind of deals Mr. Cosby brokers for Fat Albert, The Cosby Show, his specials. But I don’t have that kind of clout.” “Roger Ebert was right.” Roger Ebert, engaging his interest in things both chocolate and vanilla, took Oprah out on several dates but she didn’t realize he meant it as dates because he was talking so much about TV, business and syndication. He could’ve been Stedman……if he’d been like a foot taller. “He was?!!” “Yes, you want a part of the pie and there’s only two ways to get it. This way is just crumbs. The other way is to own your show, lock, stock and barrel. Produce it yourself in a production studio and sell it to King World who will then lease it to ABC Cap Cities who will then sell it to the 220+ local TV stations around the country and they will pay back up the line. Cap Cities gets a piece, King World gets a piece and you get a piece and eventually the TV Stations get back a piece of the total revenue.” “What would my piece be?” “About 25% of the overall take a year.” “How much is that?” “I’d say $30 million a year for each year of this 4-year contract. Yes, calculating revenues, ads, etc. and the number of markets this would go nationwide in the overall take would be about $125 million at least, even in second place. You see why $250,000 is slave wages now?” “Holy shit! Yes, I see it now! I see it!” “Yup.” “I’m not sure they’ll go for it.” “They will. They’re offering you a full 4-year contract to come in second behind Donahue. They’re not looking for you to win, just compete and offer an alternative. But I think you might be able to win over time because you’re new, different and very likable. And now you understand the difference between an employee, a slave, and an owner, freedom. I can help you.” “You’ll negotiate this back and forth with them? But then, how will we pay for the show? How much will the show cost? We don’t even have anything to sell, a place to produce the show, a crew, a team, anything.” “We’ll rent that all out year one and slowly build with the yearly profits a fully operable studio. We’ll float this as a loan, a venture capital investment. You’re holding a promissory note on your work for 4 years, worth to you as an owner, about $120 million. The contract with some tweaking, namely you becoming a company they do business with rather than an employee, will be your collateral. These huge companies no matter what will make at least the initial 4 years happen. We’ll just barter against those 4 years.” “This is amazing, Jeffrey. Is this what Bill is doing?” “Yes, which is why he’ll soon be one of America’s invisible billionaires. Every project he works on, he operates not as a paid performer but as a business, a partner, so he gets a piece of the pie, not crumbs as payment.” “Ok, if we can leverage all of this it might go beyond the 4 years, right? I mean I’ll have a studio, employees, I’ll have to produce more TV, somehow, somewhere, lease out space for TV shows, films, commercials. I’ll have to operate my studio as a business. I can’t do that and host/produce a national TV show. I understand this from a macro view but I’m going to need a partner in the micro details. A president of my company, maybe even of all of my interests, if we’re now treating me as a full business entity. There are lots of other things I dream of doing, acting, producing, lots of things. I think that’s you. What if when we draw up this company, I give you 10% of the shares, of the company as a whole? You can’t sell it but I can buy you out and you’ll help me put this all together and manage my future. You’ll be my President, agent, manager, an attorney so that it's just one stop shopping for anyone who wants to deal with me and then you and I talk it through about what works best for a plan of freedom, of ownership?” “Sounds like a deal.” “Uh, Jeffrey, I’m a Black woman. Grew up in poverty. I’ve done some things. Had some things done to me, I’m worried about fame. I want it but I’m worried. Already my family is weird about me and money.” “Let me think about it.” Jeffrey gets 10%, Harpo Studios is created, a reversal of her name and a sign for her when she’s approached by Quincy Jones to star in the film adaptation of The Color Purple by Alice Walker, her favorite book as Sophia, Harpos’ wife…as her show premieres——a synergistic alignment so that she can promote herself and the show across the world under a Steven Spielberg connection. Popularity, Really Popular, Famous and Stardom Net Worth: Fluctuating, Living in a friend’s condo in Chicago to work Spotted on TV one day by Quincy Jones while visiting Chicago, he cheers “That’s Sophia!” They contact her, she changes all kinds of schedules to get the part and gets nominated for an Academy Award. Through the sharp eye for talent from Quincy Jones, he knows that giving her this small role in the film with her national exposure will blow up the movie for all involved, it will create a blockbuster. Quincy becomes a close friend and tells her that “Your future is so bright, it burns my eyes!” Venture capitalists are found to fund the studio, ABC Cap Cities and King World have no choice, and no downside, so they go for the deal. Harpo is in fact cutting costs for them because it can promise them a stable production cost, which means they can more readily predict and control the overall profits. By being the production arm at the table, Harpo is able to negotiate how the show is presented and formatted and make strategic requests that are unique to the show itself. She wants the show broadcast everywhere at 4 pm. The idea that it’s geared towards both housewives and women coming in from work, getting dinner ready, taping the show on VCRs but everywhere at 4 pm. She wants none of the “find me” TV show hunt, what she sees with Siskel and Ebert—-which plays a variety of times based upon the TV station’s scheduling designs. Everyone must lock in at 4 pm. Oprah suggests that if they do this then Ryan’s Hope, Loving, All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital will act as natural lead-ins, bringing their audience, her core demographic into her show at 4 pm and then the local news will come on at 5 & 6 pm and as King World is distributing Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, the hours of 12 pm to 8 pm will be a natural progressive lock. This is revolutionary but it’s how Phil Donahue is defeated. It’s harder to change a channel that progressively moves through your mentality modality and demographics. He’s appointment TV on his channel, she’s part of the family on hers. Fame & Barbra Streisand “These tabloids are killing me, girl My family is a mess! A mess. I can’t deal with this shit anymore. How do you handle it, Barbra? You’ve been famous since you were a little thing. The lies the betrayal, the demands for money, the tabloids, the drama.” “Don’t you have NDAs?” “What’s that?” “Non-Disclosure Agreements. Everyone who comes within a certain amount of feet to me has to sign one. barring any divulging of my work, business, comments, etc.. Family signs it and you sue the hell out of anyone who tries to breach it to the point where just signing it puts the fear of God and the Devil into them.” “Ha,ha, girl, you so crazy!” “I’m serious.” “Really?” “Really.” “Everyone?” “Even the UPS man. Employees. Family. Friends. Restaurants. Doctors. People who can spell my name. People who come into contact with me. Everyone. You. You signed one to come over here.” “Really? That’s what that was?” “Really. That’s what that was.” “NDAs?” “NDAs.” “JEFFREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYY!” The NDA becomes a staple around Oprah. It allows her to control her stardom as if and with a legal form of anonymity. Every employee at Harpo and future companies must sign it, business relations, family, friends. It gives her privacy about the past and privacy into the future. She can have a safe space with the people around her and not have to be so guarded as celebrities can get with mega-fame. This comfort allows her to remain “the same” which translates on to TV because she’s protected. 1986 to 1990 net worth $100+ million Harpo/Oprah is a resounding success. The building/studio is purchased and the money starts rolling in and the investors are paid back. Donahue is beat and it is now contract renegotiation time. Jeffrey is in his element, Oprah is now a national, worldwide star and every time he calls ABC Cap Cities or King World, or God forbid, goes there, or calls for a meeting, they’re half terrified, half pissed off. He’s a piranha. It means Oprah/they want more. And more. And more. Of the pie itself. Second place was valued at $120+ million….but now she’s been #1 for 4 years solid. The pie going forward will be bigger than that. Much bigger, and here comes Jeffrey with his calculator. Oprah starts mentioning on air, a Queen comfortable on her throne, that yes, she’s suddenly wealthy and she loves acting, even doing a few small projects after The Color Purple. The talk show thing is great but maybe…?...it’s not forever. She has every shoe and luxury she could want, she’s okay for the rest of her life. She is edging towards 40 years old, maybe she needs to consider doing other things after all the world is her oyster? Maybe she should walk away from the show while it’s a success and focus on other areas? Maybe……… King World and ABC/Cap Cities begin to panic. They ask Jeffrey is she serious? The revenue expectations are astronomical if they keep riding this wave. Walk away? Now? Really? Really? Jeffrey shrugs innocently: “Oprah, completely owning her work and self, under production contract, but not personal control, goes like the wind and her mind takes her. “And yes, the wind is many other offers being fielded from other networks, movie studios, lots of things. She could do a drama, a TV sitcom, movies, sit back and make Harpo the mid-west production facility for the middle of the country.” Shrug. What would make her stay? What does she want? Jeffrey says he’ll get back to them. Days later he says that as a production partner, they too look at their numbers and mayhap if they could adjust them? They initially funded the building of Harpo through Venture Capitalists but that cost them in the short run. Now, more secure they want to be wholly independent, produce more than just Oprah related projects, operate as a true production company. How so? “Well, the 4-year contract called for 220 episodes per year. That divides out to each show being worth about $136,000 an episode. Which though we average it out, sort of limits Harpo’s/Oprah’s availability because it demands that they spend $30 million, borrow some—-everyone on their end has to get paid—-plus she has only a relatively short period of time to rest, to do other projects. Her exclusive contract needs to have some breathing room.” Breathing room? “Logically and mathematically and to give them some break time, some breathing room, what if Harpo were to deliver 200 episodes per year for a renewed contract? That would make each episode worth about $150,000 which would give them an additional 10% profit. The valuation is then $50 million or more a contract year, and I think it’s definitely more. Consider the international markets. There are at least 44 other world markets, a total of 120 countries this can now be broadcast into. Harpo will need to see the overall revenue books to adjust the value of the 1/4 cut as the production company. It will be worth more than $50 million a year, right?” They agree to open up to this, to alter the structure. Cash? Do you want more cash? “Well, as a second point then, looking at how this show has blown up to a mega success the old metric of $125 million split the 4 ways, evening out to Harpo getting $30 million a year feels disingenuous to the actual revenue stream. Harpo wants to still be maintained as 25% of the revenue stream from advertisers, TV stations, affiliates, international rights because that 25% is no longer worth 1986 dollars of $30 million, it’s now worth by Jeffrey’s calculations $50–75 (?) million to start, potentially $100 million (?) or even more, maybe $200 million a year, if he’s understanding these revenue metrics correctly. It’s all so complicated. Which means that Harpo will proceed cautiously. It won’t do any contracts longer than 4 years but wants the optional right to have shorter contracts, never less than 2.” They agree….. in principle. “Well, as a third point, it would make it easier for Oprah to pursue her other TV interests and ideas if she had two things—-the money upfront, it was stressful finding investors and having to pay them back. She wants to operate solely in the black. The way she can do this is if she has more capital on hand, more cash, or more fixed collateral in terms of contracts for a future period AND most importantly, a cushion.” They agree warily in….principle again. What kind of cushion? “Well, she wants to strengthen this relationship, to truly bond us all like family so everyone knows she’s committed….and she also profits from the Oprah Effect which is what your companies are profiting for, beyond just the incoming revenue…” and by that Jeffrey means the pre-glow and afterglow of her show onto the entire line up of shows around her and the network itself. This is exciting! Yes, but she’s not getting a piece of the Oprah Effect. “This is two-fold but profitable to everyone. Harpo doesn’t just want cash. Harpo wants more cash upfront AND stock in King World so that Harpo reaps the benefits of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune enriching the KW coffers AND Harpo wants an exclusive deal with ABC/Cap Cities to produce a TV series and some TV movies—-let’s say 7—- to give the studio more street cred. as time goes on then ABC Cap Cities, which eventually will be absorbed by Disney, with King World eventually absorbed by Paramount/Viacom, will also pass on stock options, instead of simply straight cash to Harpo. The value of monies “paid” to Harpo will now increase in value over time.” Jeffrey smiles. Anything else? “Well, we might also need you to act as a collateral backer if we need to take out floating loans in-between payments for capital improvements to the studio. We don’t want to bet our house on our future, we want to bet yours. You have cash stores, banks charge higher interests rates or you can vouch for us. But we need cash reserves so that we’re not dependent on just one customer buying our products, the way you as much larger companies are not dependent on one customer/studio/network.” “You’re a piranha,” they grumble to Jeffrey over the phone. “Isn’t he though?” Oprah giggles. “Whoopsie, I should’ve said I was listening in on the line.” Harpo gets bigger until it’s a 3 1/2 acre production campus. Oprah isn’t a business it’s now an industry. 1986 to 1996-How the Oprah Show Became a Hit via The Hit Woman If you put Oprah with anybody it just works because she’s simply herself. The key is that you have to get the rest of the show to be as interesting as Oprah is. And to get someone to make the show around Oprah came the superb Executive Producer for 10 years, Debra DiMaio. Debra knew the business. Knew the demographic. Knew Oprah’s strengths and knew how to build a show around a star that would ease into people’s hearts. What Debra did not know was that other people, besides Oprah, were….human. They had feelings. Human feelings. Human’s have feelings. Debbie did not always recognize this in her zeal to make, keep and forever broadcast a #1 show. By all accounts, Debra worked like the world rested on her shoulders and she couldn’t face disappointing Oprah. So she kept all the production drama away from Oprah. Oprah was the overseeing Supervising Producer, yes, who designed the ultimate frame of the show, it’s feel, it’s intent, but Debra worked on the nitty-gritty, the colors, the screws, the nuts, the bolts. Debra designed the bullet of the show to be #1 a decade in a row. Debra just wasn’t….a people person. Debra was a taskmaster. Debra was sometimes emotionally detached. Debra was often demanding. Debra was a bit much. Debra was way too much. Debra caused some folk to have nightmares…..breakdowns…..hives….panic attacks….night terrors…..day terrors…. to rue the day they took the job. Debra was the antithesis to Oprah, the ball breaker, the fixer, the hawk to Jeffrey’s piranha, who flew above the waters of the business and kept the show, the ship safe, protected, in line. Debra was the all eyes, everywhere, able to discern an issue before it got to Oprah and eliminate it. Until she became the issue because in spite of her hawk-like focus: * Debra scared people. * Debra was not nice. * Debra made Santa Claus nervous. * Debra made God apologize. Twice. Showdown, Getting Down to Business, Becoming a Businesswoman Oprah walked into her office one day and her first appointment was the entirety of the production staff, a few dozen people. She thought it was a surprise party of——no, those weren’t surprise party faces——they politely explained that it was Debra or they were all quitting. Effective immediately. “Debra terminated, this morning, or we walk.” They had signed resignation letters. “Oprah, boss up, you’re the only Glinda, the good one, the only one who can kill that bitch.” “Is she really that bad? Come on, guys,” Oprah asked innocently. Dozens of people looked back at her silently. Oprah realized she’d been sacrificing them so that she could be the only free one, in truth, in the experience. “Yes, that incarnation, known as the human Debra, is that bad.” Due to several physical laws, some laws of physics and an odd internet buzzing, this is one of the only confirmed pictures of Debra DiMaio. Just think loving thoughts at her. Oprah called Debra into her office. After four hours of talking, singing her praises, talking about staff problems, the color of the carpet, her dogs, her favorite psalms, how great Debra was, the best potato chips and how much she liked her outfit, Debra, supposedly having ice picks and x-rays for thoughts, asked: “Are you firing me? Is that what you’re trying to get at?” Oprah sighed in relief. “Yes, girl, it’s you or I think they might fire me.” “They can’t fire you, Oprah.” “I know right! That means it’s definitely you.” “You’re really not good at this.” “I know, girl. I thought about asking you to fire yourself.” “Yeah, you’re really bad at this. You need to boss up. The building has your name on it. Without me, even if you promote someone here, the problems will repeat unless you become the hawk.” “Yeah, I do. You delivered though. You crafted my energy to its optimal laser focus. I overlooked the fact that you know—people were killing themselves, no, really, girl, they were ready to suicide—-because you kept me safe on TV.” “Yes, well, that’s what I’m best at.” “Speaking of which…..I talked to Jeffrey before this conversation.” “Can a piranha eat a hawk?” “Hahaha, you funny. Anywho… Girl, I think that man has a contingency Kill File on everyone in this building. Here’s yours. The deal is as long as I am on TV, plus several years, you can never produce anything for television, movies, films, anywhere, ever. We will cut you a check of $10 million dollars a year. For your official retirement from anything media related right now. Just sign and let’s go out to dinner, I’m pooped for the day.” Debra signed….and has vanished into perpetual wealth, 20+ years of payments……… You can’t kill your assassins, you must negotiate with them. 1990 to 2000-Net Worth $1 Billion Business, Oprah, the reluctantly titled Businesswoman & What Business is Harpo In? Really in? Going to ultimately be in? Business Harpo produces more and more TV and feature films, learning to spread its wings. Oprah gets bigger and bigger and bigger. She starts doing things with her money—-like actually buying television and radio stations so she controls her own outlets around the companies that distribute her, making ways to be her own distributor in some cases. But there are limits how much a production studio can do. Then the Federal government, the FCC gets nervous (because of her, Cosby, Seinfeld, Roseanne, Tim Allen, Johnny Carson—-by they get nervous, networks are getting nervous, big stars no longer want big checks—-they want Oprah production deals) and institutes a ban on talent/performers owning the studio. The new thought is that 25% of the residual take is all that a performer should be able to press for in ownership not 100% ownership of a show because then they could fall ill or have a snit fit or not live up to such a mega responsibility. Hence why Roseanne, Seinfeld, and Tim Allen and Jay Leno are mega rich Seinfeld $800+ million, Roseanne $100+, Tim and Jay $200–$500 million but capped unlike Johnny Carson, Oprah, Cosby, who had deals in place before the regulation changes. “This mofo, again…………” (*heard at King World and ABC/Cap Cities meeting as Jeffrey Jacobs calls into the conference call.) Jeffrey is like: “This regulation doesn’t change our standing because we created Harpo before this but we’re thinking maybe this means Harpo needs to change its future strategies. No longer do we negotiate in 4 year contracts, we now only do 2–3 years because there are other networks out there now and we don’t need to work with just one network and distributor, in fact we don’t need to limit ourselves to TV, we’re considering getting into film, cable, the internet. It’s no longer about family, it’s about the best relationships. The best relationship partners know that as the main engine, Oprah needs to recharge, she needs time off, but she needs to know her employees, hundreds now, are secured to pay off their mortgages, their car notes, school loans. “Did I mention she’s set up a scholarship for 500 Black men to attend Historically Black Colleges? Full ride. All 4 years. She has obligations. She can know this, feel secure enough, safe enough to go back onto TV, if, and only if say we go from 200 shows to lets say 175 every contract year 1, 165 contract year 2, and we get all cash upfront in structured lump payments and we get more healthy helpings of stock in both the network and distributor. Oprah needs to feel safe. It’s not about the money, it’s about safety. “The show is generating $1 billion dollars across the revenue board, we’ll continue as a partner to take our 25% in cash and stock. Thank you. My calculations are starting to put that at the north of $150 million a contract year, maybe $200 million, correct? I think I can convince her to continue her mission, her Purpose, her Calling. her destiny. Her destiny, which I’m sure we can all agree has been lucrative for everyone at the table? I think I can do this. Maybe. if you help me help you help her help her to more helpings.” King World and ABC/Cap Cities Executives Renegotiation “Fine, Jeffrey, fine. In fact Jeffrey, why don’t you just type up whatever it is you want in the contracts, sign them and have them forwarded over here? Why wait for us to——who’s that at the door?” “It’s the messenger from Harpo,” Jeffrey smiles, “I took the liberty of having the contracts drafted….” Reluctantly Titled Businesswoman “Strategic & Synergistic Marketing and Branding Partnerships and Platforms.” Jeffrey Jacobs to Fortune magazine, a full business article on the business of Oprah, not just the celebrity, in 2000 (where he insists that no image of him be shown). He envisions Harpo as a multimedia synergistic branding—-he’s on the lookout for how to develop the “next Oprah”; Oprah is confused because she’s still learning the complexity of her own company’s potential. She hates meetings; distill into to an email for her please and she’ll be in on the final decision after all the nuts and bolts are laid out; she is also trepidatious about Harpo and her, intertwined in her personal vision and such intensive business terminology. Being called a businesswoman makes her nervous because she’s focused on being authentically herself, so much of her work is from instinct, her gut, not to belay her own intellect but she doesn’t want to come across as a predatory, calculated businessperson because she’s far from it. She recalls a capital allotment and distribution meeting being called and had no idea what that meant——a few weeks ago. She does understand it though in round ways; the show’s budget is $50 million a year—-for 160+ episodes—-she calls the Harpo President and the Executive Producer, she thinks that’s a good budget ceiling going forward. Her most intense and consistent business advice—-from Bill Cosby—-”Sign every check, sister.” She does. Until her hand cramps because she’s personally signing everything from paychecks to inventory bills to invoices to Fed Ex invoices. Finally, she gets an electronic pen. But she still sees and signs everything, to this day, 32 years from 1986. What Business is Harpo in? Really In? Going to be in, ultimately? Jeffrey turns to the rest of the world, it’s a damn world media podium now, and says : “You all know Oprah, having sat next to everyone who is anyone on the planet, and in 15 years she has become America’s trusted heart and truth teller, she is a Platinum Brand, which means that what she is connected to will increase exponentially. Like, say a Martha Stewart….who has a magazine? Doesn’t Martha Stewart have a magazine? “Hmmmmm. World, Oprah is open for strategic branding business partnerships.” The Black-White Woman and Semi Trucks (With Blessed (Exiled and Redeemed) Acolytes in the Mix) Cathie Black of Hearst comes to Harpo, several others have taken the shot at creating a magazine out of Oprah but Oprah likes her, Hearst’s company age, and reputation, their lack of tabloid coverage of her—-she’s almost in to do it with them—-but she has one request: “With the show, it comes on 4 pm everywhere. I want a magazine delivered the same day, everywhere in the country. I like the idea of an Oprah Effect where say for example Show# 150 and then related topic magazine Issue 150 hit at the same time so that everyone knows the schedule and at the same time and can’t tell someone not to get it this month. Everyone makes up their own mind because it’s within a couple of hours so it’s a small investment to judge for yourself.” Cathie Black, a gentle flower and anvil of corporate power, smiles and gently explains to Oprah, a combination of a business owner, a mogul and a celebrity. “That’s not how publication distribution works. It’s a series of flatbed trucks delivering across the country to hubs on a rolling schedule.” Oprah, oblivious to anything but….well, Oprah, says, “I know! Change! Change is what makes it so exciting. A whole new way of doing this! In fact, we won’t make the first few pages ads, we’ll make page 2 a double spread table of contents. I hate wading through ads to find the table of contents on page 10 or 15. That’s what will work. Change. “ Oh, and in order to make sure that this magazine is done in a way authentic to me, it can’t just be Oprah stamped. It has to be me on the cover, every month. We need more Black women on covers of magazines every month, I’ll trail blaze that. “And I’m thinking I need to have full editorial control, just the way I do with my shows. I’m the yes and the no on everything in the magazine and it’s production and distribution system. Yes, like an artist with a palette, a print palette. I love it! I love books. “We’ll need a book section too. I’ll write a column, in fact, all the people I’m developing on my show to spin off, they’ll contribute too. Even Gayle! In fact, Gayle will be my Editor At Large there in the office since she lives in NY. She knows what I like and doesn’t like. She doesn’t have to be the Editor In Chief, she has a broadcasting job, but more of an avatar of and for me, someone I trust completely is there. “Oooh, you know maybe one day we can combine the issues into like a leather-bound volume and sell it in bookstores? Yes, change and it will be a collector’s item because it will have good, useful information to help people. Change, change, change. It’s the future! If you can make all that happen, you got me, I’m in!” Oprah leaves the room already brainstorming on what this will look like over the phone with Gayle King (bff and magazine Editor At Large) and how to incorporate not only the show to the page but the sponsorship, the ads, she can bring to an Oprah entity without having to pose with shoes or cans of soup or a car. She’ll deliver sponsors to her fan base in a much more direct way than a celebrity doing ads. There was a reason to hold out. She’s a platinum brand and can control the hybrid way that she’ll synergize sponsorships now. Jeffrey smiles from the corner of the room. “If you can make that happen, you've got her. Make it happen.” Cathie Black gets that look on her face where she sees Oprah, smart, revolutionary and pulling ideas out of a whole different schema….but then realizes Jeffrey is the piranha, the designer, and enforcer, who makes the monkeys dance as the Glinda wants on the Yellow Brick Road. And the bricks are gold. “You’re a pira—-.” “Yes, yes, I am. But I’m hers,” he smiles. “The beauty of this is we have been working out a long term strategy for Harpo Productions. Get stable, get money, replicate the Oprah Winfrey template. She doesn’t think we can find another Oprah but I think we can get close. I call them Iyanla—-whoops, that one is off the table for a while, Nate Berkus, Dr. Phil, Suze Orman, Rachael Ray, Dr. Oz across every network. NBC, CBS, Fox, we’re already on ABC….unless ABC misunderstands the leveraged partnerships elsewhere mean the show could go elsewhere, with ease. Everything's Coming Up Roses, Rosie O’Donnell, Rosie’s Mimicry and Rosie's Mistake It’s working! The magazine is a HUGGGGGGGGGGGGE success right out the gate. Crushing records, skyrocketing ad rates, delivered on time on the same day everywhere. The magazine is hovering at 4–5 million issues a month at a cover price of $4.50–4.99, plus subscribers at about 1/4 the cover rate in the 1+ millions. The magazine takes a slight Recession 200802009 dip in circulation but continues to be the #1 magazine for women in the country. Oprah, on a trip to South Africa, notices thousands of Black women reading Hello! magazine. Her intent, having seen this over the years in America is to be on the cover of every magazine (And so far 12 issues x 12 months for 18 years, she’s been on every cover) because there’s a lack of Black women on magazine covers. (Yes, Essence and Ebony monthly and then smaller magazines, Oprah’s been on American Vogue and UK Vogue.) And of course there are supermodels and actresses but not consistently so she turns to Jeffrey and whispers an idea and he turns to Cathie who presents to Hearst——O Magazine in South Africa! Oprah wants little BLack girls and African girls like her and girls who attend her leadership academy to see representations of themselves everywhere. Pointedly in beauty and self help magazines. Cathie Black is hailed as a hero from landing Oprah. Cathie just nods politely and eventually does a favor for Mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg. She retires and becomes School’s Chancellor for a year. She’s a Potemkin. She comes in with a hatchet, upsetting unions and teachers and parents alike so that after her a milder Chancellor can be installed by Bloomberg but her acumen, business skills, ability to get things done and strengths are on display. Plus she has a permanent badge of professional honor on her CV, she landed Oprah to the best selling magazine of all time. Everyone came to that launch party though in 2000 though! Everybody!!!!! And that’s when a chubby lesbian (okay, who was shocked by her coming out? Who?) comedian makes a run at being The New-ish Oprah—-but lighter. Sorta! Here’s Rosie. She hosts her morning talk show from 1996 to 2002. It’s a mega hit! She’s a morning darling! She’s the Queen of Nice! Dan Brewster, CEO of Gruner+Jahr. (He’s not really relevant to the next snaffle jungle but faces help context.) Heard Around Gruner+Jahr USA Offices: “Hey, if Rosie’s such a darling and she’s a media success and she’s not as expensive as Oprah, maybe we can do some Oprah like stuff with her———like a magazine!!!!??????” The Rosie magazine In 2000, O'Donnell partnered with the publishers of McCall’s to revamp the magazine as Rosie's McCall's (or, more commonly, Rosie). What had happened behind the scenes was that McCall’s was knocked out of the running for Oprah because Oprah wasn’t happy with some of their past coverage of her. Oprah’s concern was that no partnership be with anyone who had ever written tabloid like material about her (or in general), the 50/50 revenue split with Harpo putting up nothing, per usual and Editorial Control and Veto power. When Oprah went Hearst, McCall's rushed to go Rosie in 2000. The Rosie magazine was clearly launched as a competitor to fellow talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey's monthly magazine but maybe just maybe there could be room for… two? Rosie, light fare in the daytime, gave Rosie a chance to go hard in print because she had Creative Control—— covered issues including breast cancer, foster care and other matters of concern to O'Donnell. In the September 2000 issue, she shared that "she has struggled with depression her entire life" and decided to start medications when she realized her fears were affecting her family. Rosie was going deep in the competition. She wasn’t winning exactly but Rosie is Gold Brand. Not Platinum but damn close. With a strong start and a circulation close to 3.5 million, things looked promising but the magazine stumbled as conflicts emerged between O'Donnell and the editors. Rosie’s downfall is two-pronged: 1. She hasn’t been at the game long enough to have not only constructed her own company (she has a production company) but to then have matured and grown it as Oprah and Jeffrey have. Harpo has 10 years growth experience over Rosie.) 2. Jeffrey/Oprah lobby in all their deals very specifically for absolute control. In writing. So Oprah has Editorial Control and Veto Power on everything about the magazine. Essentially Hearst produces the magazine, pays for everything, distributes the magazine and sits back lets Harpo/Oprah run the magazine. That distinction is why there isn’t a competitor to Oprah in many venues in production capability or profitability. Rosie's contract gave O'Donnell control over the creative process but Veto Power remained with publisher Gruner+Jahr USA. A year later O'Donnell quit the magazine in September 2002, following a dispute over editorial control. "If I'm going to have my name and my brand on the corner of a magazine, it has to be my vision," Rosie told People. (Oprah, having tea and a scone somewhere, reading this thought: “Duh. Don’t you negotiate total (editorial) control and veto power before the project even starts? I respect other people, other visions. And if we’re working together then our visions are aligned. But Yes and No? Them bad boys always stay with momma.” * Which is why Harpo often isn’t involved in the legal entanglements that follow fuzzy Yeses and No’s and I Love You’s, No, We Love You More’s. * Harpo: Clarity on Control and Yes and No Power. Oh, and how the pie gets split plus ancillary fees and their expected due dates. Thank you.) Rosie summarily folds in 2003, a gasping, bloody death. In late 2003, O'Donnell and the publishers each sued the other for breach of contract. The publishers claimed that, by Rosie removing herself from the magazine's publication, she was in breach of contract. The trial received considerable press coverage because not only had Rosie followed the Oprah playbook to try and win but she’d stumbled a year in. Rosie was often thought to be the natural successor to Oprah, (even in ABC Cap Cities eyes…..) O'Donnell, in her much-publicized off the cuff, Aries style, would often give brief press interviews outside of the courtroom responding to various allegations. Rosie is good for a verbal tennis match. Of note was a former magazine colleague and breast cancer survivor who testified that O'Donnell said to her on the phone that people who lie "get sick and they get cancer. If they keep lying, they get it again". (Rosie almost 10 years younger than Oprah and not Black has less experience with being thoughtful about her words, her reach, her power, her intentions. One could argue that they are an excellent comparison culturally, racially of women, media, success in America and the balances and imbalances and expectations.) O'Donnell apologized the next day and stated: "I'm sorry I hurt her the way I did, that was not my intention." The judge dismissed the case, ruling that neither side should receive damages. Essentially both sides were working so hard to replicate Oprah that they didn’t clarify what their relationship would be so they created what is politely known is vaulted hallways and legal circles as a clusterfuck. The judge suggested everyone just admits they didn’t have the foresight of others (Harpo & Hearst), pack up their toys and go home. 2011-2012: The Rosie Show and Oprah Winfrey Network If they can’t beat you, hire them! In 2011, O'Donnell began producing material for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). In May 2011, The Doc Club with Rosie O'Donnell premiered, a show where O'Donnell moderated live panel discussions following premieres of OWN Documentaries. She has hosted specials for Becoming Chaz in May 2011 and Miss Representation in October 2011. OWN is slowly warming Rosie up for bigger things. The world—-the media world had been tapping Rosie after her, not one, but two, ventures onto The View, to come back to talk show world. Oprah is officially off the air, the spoils are laid out for someone to take them! Rosie thinks she’ll just be sort of lesbian bookend to Ellen but she can’t get the freedom, the kind of deal she wants. So she goes all in with Harpo/Oprah/OWN. In fall 2011, O'Donnell began full-time work on her new show, The Rosie Show, for OWN. The beauty is that Oprah can not only hand over her affiliates to Dr. Oz but now she can hand over her entire studio set up to Rosie, that again Harpo is off the hook for costs as it steps into this nebulous new world of cable. The show taped at the Chicago studio formerly home to The Oprah Winfrey Show. The show debuted on October 10, 2011, to generally positive reviews. September 2011, TOWS had stopped taping. OWN canceled The Rosie Show on March 16, 2012, with the last show taped March 20, on the eve of O'Donnell's 50th birthday. The final show aired on OWN on March 29, 2012. In a statement, Oprah Winfrey said: “I thank Rosie from the bottom of my heart for joining me on this journey. She has been an incredible partner, working to deliver the best possible show every single day. As I have learned in the last 15 months, a new network launch is always a challenge and ratings grow over time as you continue to gather an audience. I'm grateful to Rosie and the dedicated Rosie Show team for giving it their all.” O'Donnell responded to the cancellation by thanking her viewers and the host city of Chicago: “I loved working with Oprah in the amazing city of Chicago. I was welcomed with open arms and will never forget the kindness of all I encountered. It was a great year for me—I wish the show was able to attract more viewers—but it did not. So I am headed back to my home in New York—with gratitude. On we go!” What went wrong? A hit on network TV and a hit on cable TV are two different animals. Rosie was bringing in 500,000- 2 million viewers, ending as she scaled down her show to one on one interviews (perhaps where it should’ve begun at). It would be simplistic to say that Rosie can’t be Oprah. She’s proven that she’s a draw because even though she can be brash and sharp, Rosie is genuine, loving, helpful, thoughtful, empathetic and funny. She has a lot of the same qualities as Oprah does. She even is a good actress! What she doesn’t have, arguably……… is Jeffrey/Harpo. Jeffrey has a had an extra decade for he and Oprah to sit down and codify exactly how to deliver her throughout media, to be thoughtful and specific about what they want and do not want and most importantly to practice control in small measures and then larger measures. Rosie (much like Martha Stewart) lacks a fundamental leverage piece—-she/they do not wholly own their work/the companies they work for. Oprah owns Harpo, a multi-billion dollar company. That’s a whole different beast to negotiate from than owning a production studio (offices, space, time, a budget) given to you by a parent company. Harpo/Jeffrey have the freedom to walk away from any deal and deal with anyone else. Most entertainers, wielding power yes, are still highly paid employees. Jeffrey’s initial edict and convincing to Oprah, own yourself, has matured and blossomed so that Oprah doesn’t have to demand or sue, she can ask/negotiate and walk away if a deal is not to her liking. It is to the other’s loss, not hers. The distinction can’t be stressed enough. The distinction also allows Oprah to develop others. If Harpo gets a large share of the real pie in its deals, it now starts baking its own pies,m with its own recipes to replicate a thousandfold. To get paid a thousand times. The financial reaping that Harpo/Oprah did/got from the whole Rosie debacle was in the hundreds of millions: 1. It proved that Oprah was a Platinum Brand and had Platinum instincts and team. Not just any daytime host could push out a magazine with a publisher’s assistance and it is a resounding success. The $150–200 million that Harpo reaps yearly from O Magazine seemed to be worth every cent. 2. This lined up advertisers in a bigger way than were done so for TOWS on ancillary TV movies, specials Harpo had done. Suddenly everyone who wanted to have Oprah as a spokesperson that she uniformly turned down for decades could get “endorsed” by her by being in her magazine. The surety of her hand and instincts was a deliberate extension of the Oprah Effect, Platinum Branding to the advertisers. 3. # 2 meant that Hearst could charge a premium and every increasing price, in the hundreds of thousands, for singular and multiple month advertising spaces. The lifeblood of any publication was insured. 4. Rosie didn’t leave her show in 2002 on a complete high because this was the middle time of her litigation war with McCall's. This meant that Rosie stayed Gold brand, perhaps even took a dusting down to Silver Branding. Had her magazine flourished, capturing some of and uncaptured demographics then O Magazine one, wouldn’t be a singular success and two, the way would’ve been paved for other knockoffs that didn’t have the Oprah Blessing? 5. The Oprah Effect/Blessing is then able to be extended in the future to other Oprah related entities—-including: * * O at Home—-a magazine focused on interior design (supervised heavily by Nate Berkus—-who often contributed to O Magazine as well.) * * Every Day with Rachael Ray on October 25, 2005. The magazine featured seven issues in 2006 and increased to 10 issues in 2007. In October 2011, Meredith Corporation acquired the magazine. * * Dr. Oz and the Hearst Corporation launched the bi-monthly magazine Dr. Oz: The Good Life on February 4, 2014. He has a column in O Magazine. * * In 1998, Dr. Phil McGraw published his first best-selling book, Life Strategies. In the next four years, McGraw published three additional best-selling relationship books, along with workbooks to complement them. And he had a monthly column in O Magazine for well over a decade. * * Suze Orman writes a financial advice column for O, The Oprah Magazine. * * Iyanla Vanzant writes an advice column for O magazine. * 6. When Rosie came into the Harpo/Oprah fold in 2011, while she didn’t save OWN, she was instrumental in drawing attention and viewers to the initial offerings in 2011 and offset the -production cost loss of Oprah no longer taping in her studio. This gave time for Harpo/OWN to understand the new market it was entering. She wasn’t the sacrificial lamb…but she was like a canary sent down the cable mine. She was also yet another a long line of acolytes to Oprah’s Effect, Oprah blessed acolytes. * 7. Rosie’s exit from daytime TV opened up the space that would eventually seemingly come around to bite Oprah when one of her acolytes was poached by the gap left by Rosie, the mess created by the poaching of an acolyte and the redemption/revenge Jeffrey was able to reap on daytime, more than made up for the stress and drama to come in 2001 to 2002 then 2006 and 2011. The Blessed Acolytes-Partners “In the next few years, we’re negotiating with other networks and our distributor network, King World, to launch shows for them all. We’re a boutique TV/film/commercial production studio with Oprah blessed branded talent that expands out across every major network—-that she’s introduced and therefore shared her Oprah Effect with. Her audience will now include these people into their viewership as trusted advisers on mental health, life issues, medical health, interior design, and personal finance. * Rachael Ray * Dr. Phil * Nate Berkus * Suze Orman * Dr. Oz * Iyanla Vanzant….sort of. (Oprah has long wanted to move on from being the one exclusively on the couch even going so far as to offer the entire show to Gayle, her bestie. They’ll co-host for awhile and Oprah will phase out. Oprah is even thinking about doing a phase-out like The View, she’s concerned that they’re running out of ideas for her, she’ll get bored and it will show, or she will be stuck as the host forever. From a business perspective, TOWS, her personality, is the main cash cow of Harpo Inc. It’s not a balanced business situation. TOWS is bringing in over 90% of the companies revenue they have to change this. What if they can create enough mini-spin offs that are in viewership and financial equivalency in partnerships on multiple networks to the $275 million TOWS is bringing in a year? (The natural split would be Harpo, Inc. gets 50% from each spin-off a year as a production partner so that the Chicago production studios are still used for shows and movies and TV shows and the staff of 490 at Harpo stays employed. It’s an evolutionary growth plan.) Oprah’s success is becoming a singular trap to her. She knows that there is a natural end eventually to every show/star and she wants to heed Cosby's advice and get off of the air as the primary person before she’s “been in the ring too long and is punch drunk and has to be carried off or canceled.” Stay Number #1 and walk away Number #1. (Interlude) The Tragic Tale, Loss, and Redemption of Iyanla Vanzant with Oprah Winfrey Iyanla Vanzant, bestselling author and life coach/relationship coach, becomes a mainstay on the show, Oprah giving her the stage, much as she does to the others on a rotating basis, grooming them in ability and presentation as she presents them to her audience for eventual “spin-offs”. Oprah sees the time needed for this gestation to work like 4 years. Iyanla gets antsy at 1+ years. Iyanla is on the team then off the team after a hiccup where she left the Oprah stage/show in the late 1990s for a show deal offer from…Barbara Walters, though Harpo was developing her for a show. And went to her own show (where she didn’t even have an office and she was given a wig) and crafted in BW’s vision and version of cough (Oprah) cough Iyanla. Umm hmm…Barbara Walters. Oprah’s North Star who she’s looked up to as a female guide in media/TV work world and personally as a friend and mentor. Well, maybe a professional “friend”. (Frienemy?) Barbara goes soft Iago on Harpo/Oprah and poaches Iyanla, in secrecy, promising to use all of her considerable influence and ability to make a hit (she has after all made The View a hit) with this shining star who is big enough to be as big as Oprah. ABC Cap Cities loves BW so she’ll have the lead in time before The View at 11am, Iyanla will come on at 10 AM…(pay close attention to this time slot, it gets funky.) Iyanla tells Oprah and her team that God told her that she should go with this offer with a bigger company. Oprah takes her seriously, God told her so! So she didn’t fight or try to keep her. Gayle, however, ran after Iyanla and told her in the hallway she was making a big mistake. Iyanla walks out thinking she was going to be a next cough (Oprah) cough. (Interesting side note: I, Kyle, was at the first Iyanla Show taping. It took so long to start due to delays (we audience member s waiting outside in line, even as BW arrived. She’s as tall as my kneecap.) I was tired of waiting in line for two hours, I left. I didn’t miss much The Iyanla Vanzant show was canceled within a year.) Now, Oprah, I wouldn’t call her gullible or naive, I would call her honest and openhearted—in a way that is easy to connect to personally and emotionally but hard to believe sometimes within a business arena because it’s so anti-business “cold” and calculating in some ways—-believed Iyanla when she said in the parting meeting that she was offered her own show by someone bigger than Harpo/Oprah. Oprah thought it was someone bigger, outside of the wheelhouse, the network she was with, the parent company. She thought it was Viacom (CBS). Or maybe Sony Telepictures. She thought BIG. Which is why she believed Iyanla that maybe it was God’s voice/plan for Iyanla to move on from Harpo so she didn’t grouse it. (Jeffrey on the other hand…………) Word on the media street was that he doesn’t forgive nor forget when you outplay him in business and poach. His clap back was eventually polite, poetic but pointed. The Come To Jesus TWO part episode over a decade later where Oprah and Iyanla Reconciled It’s now 2011: Oprah and Iyanla reconcile as Iyanla reveals humiliation, bad business decisions, literally the wrath of the universe fell upon her, her life, her business, her bestselling books are taken away for late tax payments even her husband left her! She’s making hand lotions and potions in her kitchen when Oprah gets back to her in 2011. They reconcile on air. Oprah doesn’t even get bitter or condescendingly I told you so about it and in typical Oprah aikido fashion she turns it into—-Iyanla, what was going on with you, girl? interview judo and Iyanla……..emotionally breaks down on Oprah why she broke out from Oprah!!!!!! (pay attention, Oprah does one more Alpha Talk Show Host Aikido move before her show ends in 2011.) Iyanla gets honest and explains that with hindsight she didn’t feel worthy, she didn’t trust all the profit and blessings, she lost her way to her ego trying to become the next Oprah and didn’t trust Oprah who was setting her up to be …..the next…Iyanla. Oprah’s philosophy sticks to her mild ire at Jeffrey’s comment in the Fortune 2000 magazine article about finding/developing/creating the next Oprah. She firmly understands——from a deep spiritual POV——that there can only be one. One Oprah. One Iyanla. One Dr. Phil. You can’t replicate her but you can establish a rapport with the audience for them to see in Iyanla, what she sees, the gifts Iyanla has, the abilities Iyanla brings to the stage, that Oprah doesn’t have in the same way. Spiritual Aikido “I did believe in you 100%. In your gifts. I always believed in you….even when I tuned into your show and saw it was all wrong for YOU, the Iyanla I see and know. And I still believe in you, Iyanla. And I always will. I am never false in my esteem, trust, estimation nor truth in what I think of you or what you are worth. They (BW) did not know your worth.” “No”, Iyanla corrects, “I did not know my worth. It wasn’t you, I was afraid that you were being (business) nice to me, that I wasn’t enough, that I was false, a fake for all of this, all that you were bringing to me, giving to me, setting me up to walk into for myself. I believe in my skill but not my worthiness to receive, reap, from it..” “You are enough. Always, Iyanla. Always!” NOT. A. DRY. EYE. IN. THE. AUDIENCE. IN. THE. STUDIO. Nor 40 million people around the world who watch both back to back episodes. And there is always redemption: Oprah announces the launch of Iyanla, Fix My Life on her new network, OWN, as a flagship show, coming in 2011. She’s giving her a TV show…on her brand new network! Alpha Queen And just to, you know, show how a real Queen shows that she’s Queen. Oprah has on all the talk show hosts who lasted the longest against her Number # 1 show on one of her final shows…but never beat her in the ratings and was canceled. Phil Donahue, Geraldo Riviera, Ricki Lake, Sally Jessy Raphael, Montell Williams. And toasts with champagne them to a game well played,…….non-winners. (Technically Donahue ran for 29 years, 26 in syndication. 1 more year than TOWS.) Revenge of the Jedi…Jeffrey BW had Bill Geddie, her longtime Executive Producer, right-hand man. Her Debbie DiMaio…. But Oprah. Oprah had Jeffrey. He went Michael Corleone on BW. He waited. Patient as Death. Subtle like. You don’t beat enemies, you don’t trash talk them, you don’t get even. You get better than even. Success is the best revenge. The best revenge is a dish served cold. Very cold. Steel goes brittle in Jeffrey’s mouth. Iyanla’s ABC show produced by BW and Bill Geddie ran from 2001–2002. 1 year. But made a gap in the programming schedule. A few more shows run nationally and locally but never take hold at 10 am. No one takes hold. And then Oprah/Harpo contracts come up for negotiation again. How can you keep Oprah post-2000? Revenge is Spelled EVOO In 2005, after appearing on TOWS for years, Rachael Ray is spun off to her own TV show. On ABC. At 10 am…before The View….the coveted slot that BW had wrangled from ABC/Cap Cities and lost when Iyanla’s first show tanked. Produced by Harpo as leverage-incentive within the Oprah/Harpo contract renegotiation. Rachael Ray is entering its 13th season with Harpo Inc as a partner in 2018. Hey, girl!!!!!! Barbara Walters retires in 2014 after 50 years on TV. Oprah comes to The View and sits center table for her retirement. Umm hmm. Yes, she did. Dr. Phil is on CBS. From 2002 to present—-renewed through 2022. Nate Berkus is on NBC for two years. Harpo and Sony Pictures co-produces. And Suze Orman ends up on CNBC in 2002 but is still regularly on TOWS through to the end and does exclusive webinars with Oprah herself. Dr. Mehmet Oz debuts his show in 2009 for Fox after years on TOWS, being groomed. But there’s a catch to him. The Dr. Oz show though was unique in it’s syndication agreement because Harpo negotiated that all of the distributors/affiliates that originally broadcast the Oprah show—-if they wanted to be in her 2 year last episodes contract would have to take Dr. Oz’s show on in her time slot and maintain him for 5 years out. 92% (about 225 of the 250 affiliates across the nation she was on, took the deal after she’d spent the nominal 4 years grooming him. He literally slips right into her shoes, guaranteeing he’s a hit before his show even debuts and everyone who was making money from TOWS isn’t at a loss when she leaves AND Harpo still gets a 50% production payoff from their old time slot/his show. Harpo literally gets half of the salary/revenue by her handpicked replacement when she leaves network TV. for her time slot.) He’s going into his 10th year. Harpo Controls Time * Rachael Ray comes on at 10 AM across the nation. * Soap operas/game shows/rivals talk shows like The View are on from 11 am until 1–2 pm across the nation. * Nate Berkus comes on a 2 pm * Dr. Phil comes on at 3 pm * Oprah comes on a 4 PM—-then is replaced by Dr. Oz at 4 pm (and syndicated times.) * Suze Orman comes on every evening and the weekends then naturally leads viewers back to TOWS during the week….and then helps gather them online and then helps bring them to OWN. Harpo/Jeffrey set it up so that you don’t kill your enemies/poachers——you outdo them on so many levels that you show them up as incompetent. Back To Black and Black Don’t Crack…until it met Harpo in 1999/2000 Jeffrey takes a meeting with Cathie about a potential Oprah magazine. “Cathie, may I call you Cathie? A magazine would be a great add on with a readership of about 4 to 5 million subscribers that we can pull in, low end, because that would mean about $200–300 million in revenue, split down the middle. We provide Oprah and Oprah-ness, have total control over the magazine from content to distribution, and you get to sit back, distribute and count your money. Harpo never puts in money, it would express a lack of faith in Oprah. But the whole Oprah camp and talent bank will contribute and their fan base will buy issues too.” “Jeffrey, no one has been given this level of distribution, autonomy, profit structure, and control before. Putting up no money?!! Ever.” “I know, right! Exciting huh!? To be on the cutting edge. Call me when you work out that distribution snafu Oprah mentioned. Then we know you’re the one for us. I’m thinking ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years of a magazine, month after month. “What’s that at $150 million a year domestic and then international down the road? Five, six billion? Yes, that would be a crown jewel in Hearst’s crown….especially with print going the way of the internet. “Do you know the group over at Time Warner Publications they said they could be here next week? Great guys. Oprah likes them a lot too. I’m sure whatever Hearst can’t do, someone, somewhere will figure out the way to do it looking at the whole picture, the future picture, the profit picture. Have a good day.” Cathie went back to Hearst and amazingly enough, they were able to figure out how to get the O magazine distributed everywhere, all at once, on the same day, throughout the entire country, by timing their semi trucks better. As always, with Hearst Magazines, Harpo Print, LLC publishes O, The Oprah Magazine. The company also published O at Home, which Hearst officially folded in 2008 after a four-year run but occasionally does spot issues like October 2018’s. 2001 to 2011 Net worth $2–3 billion dollars; * O Magazine becomes a mega-hit; first in the US and then pointedly in Africa and around the world, averaging sales of 4 million copies a month. * last year of the 25 years of TOWS * the OWN Network deal with Discovery (getting one of their 8 channels is signed in 2009, to launch in 2011) * All the Blessed Acolytes are in place across the board of network TV channels—-bringing in revenue so that Harpo is no longer dependent on Oprah solely Dr. Phil is on the air on CBS, Rachael Ray is on the air on ABC, Nate Berkus is on the air on NBC, Dr. Oz is on the air in syndication/Fox, and then the last disciple she slowly trains and introduces to the world on her show and then releases from the fold—-is given 94% of the slots on TV that TOWS occupied as a swap deal with the affiliates when she ends her show at the 25 year mark in 2011—-Harpo is reaping 25% to 50% of each of the show's revenues of between $100–250 million a year. Oprah Goes Back to Her Roots in Radio…in a BIG way Harpo has also signed a deal with Sirius XM Radio to broadcast 4 years of new and old programming from the Harpo catalog—-which includes all the above shows. She brings on Friends of Oprah (newly Blessed Acolytes who may already have their own success/followings. Synergistic partnerships in multimedia.) You Get a Radio Show, You Get a Radio Show, You Get a Radio Show! * Marianne Williamson * Nate Berkus * Gayle King * Deepak Chopra * Tony Robbins * Old Oprah Winfrey Shows * Oprah herself * Plus others. It’s a $50 million dollar deal. All (Really) Good Things…. TOWS ends after 25 years, most notably business wise it produces in its last couple of years about 130+ episodes, making the valuation of each episode/the budget about $300,000 to $500,000. capping at $50 million. The Oprah Winfrey Show episode library worth about $1.8 to $2.5 billion, by the valuation of budget, costs, syndication fees. But how to resell that catalog a second, third and fourth, infinite time(s)? Guess Who Owns Half of OWN…and some of ABC Cap Cities, and some of King World and a little bit of Disney, and a significant piece of Viacom? King World is bought out by Paramount and then Paramount is bought out by Viacom, bundled together into National Amusements by Sumner Redstone, a prolific, tough, smart….special billionaire who even fires Tom Cruise when he gets on his nerves. And then ABC Cap Cities is bought by Disney. CBS and Viacom acquisition On January 19, 2000, King World was acquired by CBS. After CBS' purchase of the company, Eyemark Entertainment, the successor to Group W Productions following the CBS/Westinghouse merger, was folded into King World.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_World_Productions#cite_note-7 [7] CBS Enterprises was bought by Viacom, Inc. around the time of CBS's acquisition of King World, thus becoming owned by the post-split CBS Corporation as well as all of Viacom's former TV production and distribution operations. In its latter days, King World was considered the syndication branch of the CBS network (a role Viacom actually first served upon its creation), having succeeded Eyemark in that role. King World, however, distributed newer CBS shows such as Everybody Loves Raymond 1990s Until 2000s while the older shows were syndicated by corporate affiliate CBS Paramount Television, the successor to the original distributor Viacom Enterprises. Additionally, from 2000 to 2006, King World distributed archive programs from Group W, such as The Mike Douglas Show. On September 26, 2006, CBS announced that King World and CBS Paramount Television's syndication operations would be combined to form the CBS Television Distribution Group (CTD). Roger King was announced as CEO of the new entity. However, he died on December 8, 2007, after suffering a stroke the previous day. Paul Franklin currently serves as President of CTD. [8] For one year, the King World on-screen identity was kept for the programs it distributed at its closure. However, most of the programs handled by King World were distributed under CTD. On September 27, 2007, CBS Television Distribution introduced a new closing logo to replace the old logos of King World, CBS Paramount Domestic Television, and its predecessors. In all iterations, Oprah’s stock stakes survive and converts, so she’s a partial owner in Disney and in Viacom. And the Discovery deal is a 50/50 split. Oprah has moved on to the Discovery Partnership for 50% ownership in rebranding one of their 8 channels into OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, again following the Hearst mode of Harpo puts up Oprah and Discovery puts up hundreds of millions of dollars. Close to $300-$550 million to get it up and running as she steers the ship and finds it’s audience, it’s best productions and content creators. and makes it a hit within 4 years of the 7-year initial contracted deal (2009–2016). She begins traveling the world Canada, UK, India, Australia, South America making deals to broadcast throughout the world throughout the Discovery world network. Expanding her fame. But why cable, some wonder? Discovery has roughly 100 million cable subscribers to its 8 channel bloc a month around the world who pay cable fees to view. Cable fees per channel are set and often shift depending on regulations and offerings, premium offerings, viewership, and expansion. In 2012 -2014 new payment rates change Discovery’s payment amount to approximately $1.15 per cable subscriber. Approximately $115 million dollars a month X 12 months equals about $1.4 billion a year, divided by 8 channels equals about $172 million and then divide that into Harpo/OWNs stake of 50% valuates at a fluctuating $75 to 80 million a year. That’s not counting old shows from her catalog (answering the quandary of what does one do with a catalog of 4600+ TOWS shows; including other people’s shows (Blessed Acolytes and newly created shows) they rebroadcast and Discovery pays a fee to Harpo for and new shows OWN/Harpo develops and gets paid a fee for while retaining ownership. But wait, you know Oprah, she has to pull in quality talent and filling 20+ hours of a channel a week is a tough deed. When you’re in doubt, debt and trying to swim upstream who do you call? An old Black woman. Wait, a young Black man dressed as an old Black woman. Tyler Perry Tyler Perry has been rocking films that are….attractive to a large segment of the Black…and White demographic. Broad comedies. Simple dramas. He’s spread out into an unprecedented deal with sitcoms on TBS. He agreed to do 200 episodes of multiple sitcoms for payment of $100 million upfront. Because he owns his own studios in Atlanta, similar to Oprah’s Harpo, he can churn out TV shows, films, commercials, stage plays at a staggering rate. His initial deal with TBS has ended, fulfilled perfectly, and he’s slowly pulling his chips and relationships together with Lionsgate and others—-considering starting his own cable network. But Tyler is a Silver brand. He’s good, very good. But he’s not Platinum brand yet. What Oprah has done with a handful, he’s done with ten times as many products. She calls him up. “Tyler, it’s Oprah. I need you, baby. These mofos got me in a corner. I have a headache, they said I can’t make this ship fly. Harpo is in a contract with Discovery from 2009 to 2016. It’s 2012 and momma’s feeling the heat. I need this bad boy to fly.” “What you need, girl?” “I need you, your shows, maybe some movies on my network. I need you to bring that audience you’ve been cultivating and leading to OWN.” “That’s money, momma. You know that. I don’t want to hurt our friendship by poaching cash from you. Not the way we run hard at business.” “It’s okay, sugar lump. Discovery is paying the bills. How about this though? I’ll break you off a piece of my ownership percentage and get them to break you off a piece of their ownership percentage—-let’s call it 5% ownership plus episode production fees in total, for 4 or 5 or even 6 shows. As many as you want to make. Let’s say approximately 100–150 episodes of some original stuff and I’ll even get them to pay up for some of your other show reruns.” “That’s a lot, momma.” “They like me. Plus think of it this way—-practice for your own network in the future AND I’ll sweeten the pie down the road. I’ve got some good shows and ideas and relationships coming. Ava Duvernay, others, even Iyanla, but they all need time. I need a bridge-hitter. Tent poles. Someone to keep us in the game for a few more years as I develop the others from scratch.” “What else could you possibly give me besides your mentorship and this deal, sweet teacher?” “Baby, I own part of Viacom from all that King World-ABC Cap Cities-Paramount-Disney stock options paying, swapping, takeover, boom boom over the years, about 2% of the whole mama jamma. I’m one of the largest single stock holders. You know Gayle is sitting pretty on CBS right now, right? You sign with us, produce for us, exclusively for awhile—-say five to ten years and I’ll hook you up with the really big boys—-you know Viacom has been trying to woo me to CBS any which way they can since TOWS was on—-I used to use them as leverage . “ In 2000 I toyed with them by threatening to leave ABC Cap Cities for CBS to up my contract fees and incentives with ABC/Cap Cities. ABC Cap Cities saw the error of their slow-poking ways, gave me everything I wanted and finally I threw Viacom Dr. Phil to give them a good taste of my love and then I kept, every contract negotiation with ABC Cap Cities, suggesting I might slip on over there and create a 3pm and 4pm whammy with him. “Hell, I might even start doing network evening specials for them—-interview the Obamas, maybe even join 60 Minutes. I’ll present you to them as I walk in the door for more production deals. Each one help one. Sound good? I got you, baby, momma got you.” “I’m in!” Tyler gets 5% of OWN, Harpo-Discovery—-Harpo owns 47.5%, Discovery owns 47.5%. * The Haves and the Have Nots. * Love Thy Neighbor * For Better or Worse * The Single Moms Club * If Loving You Is Wrong * The Paynes All premiere on OWN between 2013 and 2014, all ratings stars, from moderate to some of the highest rated shows on all of cable TV for their respective nights. Perry’s shows don’t save the network as much as Oprah’s bonds and acumen allows her to negotiate a deal with someone to add ballast to OWN long enough for them to have years for developing other successful shows and weed out the shows that won’t work. This also gives Tyler Perry more Hollywood street cred in the TV space so that he’s able to secure a future deal with Viacom (On June 14, 2017, Perry signed a long term deal with Viacom for 90 episodes/year of original drama and comedy series. Viacom will also have distribution rights to short video content and a first look at film concepts. The TV deal begins May 2019, as he is still under contract to OWN.) and use this all as leverage to create a ginormous movie studio/campus in Atlanta—- it also hosts 12 sound stages (The blockbuster Marvel film, Black Panther, was the first to be filmed on one of the new stages.) Oprah Needs You to Go To Work and Pay Your Bills, Thank You But most importantly—-you have cable? You have Discovery channel as part of your cable TV basic package? You pay your bill? You’re paying Oprah about 15 cents a month as Harpo gets 50% of 1/8 of Discovery’s cable revenue payments from each subscriber. “Sincerely, from my new office in West Hollywood (that Discovery built out for Harpo), thank you for your 15 cents every month. All 100 million of you. Thank you.” But wait, where’s Jeffrey? Well, there was some meshuggas about 20+ years in—-him, his wife, perhaps a secretary or two. Can’t be any meshuggas and since 1996 Oprah has stepped up as a boss. Even your Merlin must sometimes go, King—-errr Queen Arthur——-err Queen Oprah. She quietly let’s him go. he still retains an original ownership stake in Harpo Inc but over the years the percentage has gotten smaller as the company has expanded into films, magazine, network deals, radio, publishing, stores, etc. etc. His stake is about 3–5% now….of a multi-billion dollar company. OWN/Harpo, Inc. now occupies this spectacular building….for the most part some form of rent free as part of a convoluted: * You (Discovery—(from Advertisers and Cable Subscribers)) Pay For It (all shows production, Distribution, Branding, Marketing, manufacturing, design, cable systems distribution and management, legalities, insurance, HR, etc.) * We (Harpo—Blessed by Oprah) Make Shows for You (Discovery), * You (Discovery) Pay for What We (BLessed by Oprah/Harpo & Production Companies of Shows like Tyler Perry and others) Make, * We (Harpo) Sell It to You (Discovery), * You (Discovery) Have Us (Harpo & Production Companies) in the Building, You (Discovery) Pay For so it gets made right, and then * They (Discovery from Cable Subscribers) Pay Us (Harpo Staff & Production Companies/Staff) and * We (Harpo) Pay Them (Harpo Staff & Production companies) and then * They (Discovery Channel) Hand the Money Right Back to Us (Harpo to keep our cut and distribute to partners like Tyler Perry and production companies of other shows) Deal!!! Ultimately know though….the money stays with us at Harpo. Trust that. All Good Things….Bye, Chicago! The Chicago Harpo campus is sold to….McDonald’s for $32 million, Oprah sells her condo, her Indiana ranch and heads to California. Discovery is kind enough to put Harpo up in a brand new spanking building of studios…which totally alleviates all of the Harpo studio physical costs. In many ways Harpo has evolved into a boutique production company of storage, temporary offices, a formerly swelled staff of 400+ but now leaner, tighter, though other entities in the catalog, swell Oprah’s touch/responsibility staff is about 12,000+. But Harpo has one thing now that it didn’t have before—-a stable of shows it owns, co-owns, and produces, through the Discovery deal so that the burden of revenue no longer rests on just Oprah shows/shoulders——which was always the razor's edge worry at Harpo—-what if something happens to her? What if she burns out? The whole house of cards falls down. Oprah used her space, fame, acumen, business to essentially buy media “acreage” and farming “equipment”, till the soil, plant some Oprah vegetables; then sell those to market to start spreading out more acreage purchases, differing vegetable plots; partnerships with mills and farms; borrowing of their equipment to create Harpo into it’s own fresh media supermarket with production deals with Discovery, HBO, film studios, and most recently Apple for original programming. She’s parlayed the original 4561 episodes of TOWS talk show by selling them and reselling them multiple times—- * First Time first run syndication (1986 to 2011) * Second Time played as audio on Sirius XM (2009 to 2013) and then again * Third Time repeated on Discovery as a whole or chopped up into new shows (Oprah: Where are They Now?, Season 25: Oprah Behind The Scenes, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah Builds a Network, Oprah's Favorite Things, Best of Oprah (100 Episodes)) that are charged to the venture at new show prices. Like steak one night, hamburger the next, pasta with meat sauce the next, Sloppy Joes the next, tacos the next, beef broth soup the next, but always at a premium price. Jeffrey taught her and the staff well. His business vision was right. They were never in the business of the talk show—-they were in a media, intellectual property, branding enterprise. OWN’s productions since 2009 to Present (all of which Harpo & or Oprah acts as the owner, partial owner, executive producer of) Original Programming Dramas 1. Greenleaf 2. Queen Sugar 3. Love Is_ Comedies 1. The Paynes Soap Operas 1. The Haves and the Have Nots 2. If Loving You Is Wrong Docu-series 1. Black Love 2. The Book of John Gray Talk Shows 1. The Dr. Oz Show 2. Dr. Phil 3. Home Made Simple 4. The Nate Berkus Show 5. The Oprah Winfrey Show 6. Rachael Ray 7. Super Soul Sunday Reality 1. Iyanla: Fix My Life 2. Mind Your Business with Mahisha 3. Oprah's Master Class 4. Released Acquired Programming Syndicated 1. 227 2. Benson Newsmagazine 1. 20/20 on OWN 2. Dateline on OWN Reality 1. Undercover Boss Upcoming 1. Ambitions (2019) (soap opera-style drama from Will Packer and Lionsgate) 2. David Makes Man (2019) (drama series starring Phylicia Rashad) 3. My Name Is Love: The Darlene Love Story (TV movie) 4. Tulsa, miniseries Former (Expired/Cancelled, Non-Renewed) 1. 2 Fat 2 Fly 2. 6 Little McGhees 3. 10 Kids 2 Dads 4. Addicted to Food 5. All My Children 6. The Ambush Cook 7. America's Money Class with Suze Orman 8. Are You Normal, America? 9. Ask Oprah's All Stars 10. Belief 11. Beverly's Full House 12. Beyond Belief 13. Blackboard Wars 14. Breakthrough with Tony Robbins 15. Carson Nation 16. Checked Inn 17. Commander in Heels 18. The Customer is Always Right? 19. Deion's Family Playbook 20. Deliver Me 21. The Diamond Collar 22. The Doc Club with Rosie O'Donnell 23. The Dr. Laura Berman Show 24. Don't Tell the Bride 25. Extreme Clutter with Peter Walsh 26. Extreme Weight Loss 27. Finding Sarah 28. Flex & Shanice 29. For Better or Worse 30. For Peete's Sake 31. The Gayle King Show 32. Golden Sisters 33. Help Desk 34. Houston Beauty 35. In the Bedroom with Dr. Laura Berman 36. In Deep Shift with Jonas Elrod 37. It's Not You, It's Men 38. The Judds 39. Kidnapped by the Kids 40. Knight Life with Gladys 41. Life with La Toya 42. Lindsay 43. Lives on Fire 44. Livin' Lozada 45. Lost and Found 46. Love in the City 47. Love Thy Neighbor 48. Lovetown, USA 49. Married to the Army: Alaska 50. Miracle Detectives 51. Mom’s Got Game 52. My Life Is A Joke 53. Mystery Diagnosis 54. NY ER 55. One Life to Live 56. Operation Change 57. Oprah Builds a Network 58. Oprah Prime 59. Oprah's Favorite Things 60. Oprah's Lifeclass 61. Oprah: Where are They Now? 62. Our America with Lisa Ling 63. OWN Documentary Club 64. Party at Tiffany's 65. Police Women of Broward County (marathons are still aired) 66. Police Women of Cincinnati (marathons are still aired) 67. Police Women of Dallas 68. Police Women of Maricopa County 69. Police Women of Memphis (marathons are still aired) 70. Raising Whitley 71. Real Life: The Musical 72. The Rob Bell Show 73. Rollin' With Zach 74. The Rosie Show 75. Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals 76. Searching For... 77. Season 25: Oprah Behind The Scenes 78. Shocking Family Secrets 79. Staten Island Law 80. Super Saver Showdown 81. Super Soul Sessions 82. Swell Life 83. T.D. Jakes 84. Trouble Next Door 85. TV Guide Magazine's Top 25 Best Oprah Show Moments 86. The Tyler Perry Show 87. Unfaithful: Stories of Betrayal 88. Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind 89. Wanda Sykes Presents Herlarious 90. Welcome to Sweetie Pie's 91. Why Not? with Shania Twain 92. Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star Long live the Queen. 2011 to 2018 net worth $3–$4 billion dollars. “Yes, them is some Louboutin’s….I bought a few more shoes.” The Discovery deal ran initially from 2009 until 2016, with Harpo having the right to back out, no harm no foul, at any point. Instead they re-upped for another run until 2025 with a portion of the stake being sold to Tyler Perry to bring his shows onto the network under her banner and then to another portion of the 50% being sold to even out the deal with the acquisition of the Scripps Network to acquire that behemoth, by cashing out $70+ million of the stake from Harpo. They decide to hire Oprah. Oprah gets a job…at Harpo. 2017 to Present-Oprah gets a job at Harpo!!!!!!!!, the company she owns, Takeovers, Blowing Yourself Up, Cashing Out and ultimately as always, paying Oprah and now Harpo as TWO separate entities. In a takeover as Discovery took over Scripps you have to basically puff up your company. The way you puff it up is you show to the takeoveree and the banks that you’re big enough to absorb the company you’re after and/or take care of it. * The new company/bank you might be getting loans from asks in a very simplistic way—-have you got enough money to buy this on hand?—-or instead of cash money do you have enough of your own company as a mass to do this? * Discovery turns to Oprah and says we need to buy back some of your percentage to puff ourselves up. * Harpo/Oprah says we’re worth as 1/8 of approximately $150 million a year—-that’s what we’ve been getting from you for our end of the partnership. * Discovery then said ok, we’ll forward you $70 million in cash to buy your ownership stake out, get you down to 24.5% ownership stake (Tyler Perry probably being bought/phased out in percentage ownership from Harpo’s end, .5%, the burden of sharing on Discovery to total to his 5% stake plus production fees on his 5–6 shows——-approximately $7 million in stakeholder value to Perry a year, over 10–12 years—-worth about $90 to 100 million) and Discovery then makes it up by Oprah being “hired” as the CEO of the OWN Network at a salary of $70 million a year. Her entire salary then becomes a taxable expense to Discovery and not a revenue drain. * Discovery gets puffed up, Oprah/Harpo gets paid this year and next year we pay you both two checks, equaling $150+ million. Oprah signs a 7 year CEO contract with Discovery to be the President/CEO of OWN, $70 million a year. Or a $490 million dollar employment contract… to work at her own company. Harpo getting another $490+ million, as cable subscriber rates could, will change. Harpo (Oprah) signs on the dotted line, to own 24.5% of OWN, worth $70+ million every year from subscriber fees.) This clarifies that the Discovery deal in total from 2009 to 2023, 14 years, is worth first $1 billion in cash/pay and ownership stake and then production fees for all the shows run on Discovery from the Oprah vault, acolytes and new OWN productions. Harpo Ideology Stay lean and free of entanglements and in control of one’s destiny….never be a slave….always own your work…be able to walk away… own yourself, your work lock, stock and barrel. Oprah got back to acting, making a few movies along the way (Selma, The Butler, A Wrinkle in Time, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks—-her pay rate probably from $2 million to $5 million per project—-but she/Harpo is often a production partner so that fee fluctuates), plus some more TV shows (appearing in Greenleaf on OWN), interviews, you know just for the contracts, making new friends and fun. HBO Deal in 2008 and Harpo Films In late 2008, Harpo Films signed an exclusive output pact with HBO. Previously, Harpo Films had a deal with ABC, which included production of Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day. In February 2013, Harpo Films was shut down, citing that "the demand for long-form projects, especially on the broadcast side, has dried out." Many of its employees will move on to Harpo Studios' new scripted series division. Harpo Feature Films * Beloved (1998) * The Great Debaters (2007) * Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009) * The Hundred Foot Journey (2014) * Selma (2014) (under Harpo Productions) Harpo Telefilms (all on Network TV, ABC, per the ABC/Cap Cities deal) * There Are No Children Here (which Oprah starred in with Maya Angelou) * Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day * Tuesdays with Morrie * Their Eyes Were Watching God * Amy & Isabelle * David & Lisa * The Wedding * Before Women Had Wings (which Oprah starred in) * The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (which Oprah starred in on HBO) Apple Production Deal in 2018 Stay loose and commitment to no singular entity indefinitely so that no one can ever shut you down or out. Harpo signs a deal with Apple which seemed shocking but really wasn’t if you trace this back to you guessed it…Jeffrey’s omni-vision for Harpo. His comment in the Fortune 2000 article was bundling together all of his ideas and plans, including the internet, not nearly as big as it is now… but both he and Oprah thought it had possibilities. So they started experimenting with it. The Oprah Book Club 80 books have been chosen for Oprah’s book club, started in 1996 as a way of extending Oprah’s love of reading to the audience. Simply put she announces she loves a book, some audience members and the author came on the show and discussed the book and the audience could follow along. That sounded so simple. It’s not simple when Oprah blesses something. First off she wanted it to be a secret so that you had to tune in to the show for her to announce the book—-and as a precursor to the O Magazine idea, bouncing off of the initial idea of TOWS coming on at 4pm all at once across teh nation, she wanted the same thing to occur at bookstores. Sealed boxes of the books that wouldn’t be opened until she announced at 4pm what the book would be. The first time they tried this, Harpo alerted teh bookstores and teh publisher. “It’s Oprah. When she announces the book, there will be a mad rush. You should order like a massive amount of copies. Like a lot, a lot.” Barnes and Noble: “Tut tut, Harpo. Don’t toot your horn so loudly. We got this.” OPRAH TOLD ME TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” 1 million copies of each book. Minimum. At the show's conclusion in May 2011, Nielsen BookScan created a list of the top-10 bestsellers from the club's final 10 years (prior data was unavailable). The top four with sales figures as of May 2011: 1. Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth (2005), 3,370,000 copies 2. James Frey, A Million Little Pieces, 2,695,500 copies 3. Elie Wiesel, Night, 2,021,000 copies 4. Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 1,385,000 copies It become s a phenomena as America….reads! ‘Cause Oprah suggested it. But wait there’s more. In 2008 the right bok comes along to experiment with along Jeffrey’s “synergistic multimedia intellectual property platform.” The Future/The Internet A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose is a self-help book by Eckhart Tolle. First published in 2005, it sold 5 million copies in North America by 2009. In 2008 it was selected for Oprah's Book Club and featured in a series of 10 weekly webinars with Tolle and Oprah Winfrey. For 10 episodes, approximately 2–3 hours each, follwoing a chapter in the book, Oprah opens the book club, A New Earth to… cyberspace. And breaks the internet. See Oprah again had a “vision”. (Probably the most frightening sentence heard in Harpo hallways because it means a team of folk has to figure out how to make something that’s never happened before…happen.) Oprah’s vision was her and Tolle and people could Skype in from home. Like a worldwide audience. And then the producers/directors could have face bubbles appear on teh screen and she’d be talking live in the initial broadcast of the webinar to people from everywhere. “Wouldn’t that be cool, producers?” Oprah beamed. “Ummm………………….ok.” “Yay, team!” Oprah cheered. “I’ll come to the studio Tuesday afternoon after the taping of TOWS with my post it dogeared copy of ANE and chat it up with Eckhart. See ya then, guys!” And so it was Tuesday afternoon……… Of course. OPRAH FIASCO By Don Kaplan March 5, 2008 | 7:59am OPRAH flattened the Internet Monday night. The first of several heavily hyped live Webcasts featuring Oprah Winfrey and the author of her current book club pick crashed about 10 minutes into a promised, history-making 90-minute show. Only a handful of viewers were able to see the entire event. Most of the audience, estimated at more than 500,000 viewers, could only see the first few minutes before their screens froze. “This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” Winfrey told viewers at the beginning of the Oprah-cast. “I’ve done a lot of exciting things in my life but I am most proud at how all of you have joined us in this global community,” she said shortly before the Web site crashed. It was to be the first of 10 live Monday-night broadcasts with Oprah and Eckhart Tolle, author of the best-selling spiritual book, “A New Earth,” Winfrey’s latest Oprah Book Club selection. Nearly 3,000 people left messages yesterday on Oprah’s Web site complaining about the screw up and expressing their frustrations. “The broadcast kept freezing and sputtering and only caught a word here and there,” complained a fan going by the moniker, 4sandrella. “It was very frustrating and it only got worse as the broadcast went on.” “After having waited so long for this. . . it was heartbreaking to have the screen freeze continuously and then finally stop with only an explanation that the network was experiencing technical difficulties,” wrote another fan, calenejd. Officials at Harpo, Winfrey’s production company, issued an apology yesterday and promised that technicians were working to fix the problem. “Harpo Productions, Inc. . . recognizes that interactive Internet broadcasting to a mass audience is still an emerging medium, and we’re proud to have been pioneers in pushing the industry forward. “We deeply regret that some of our audience did not have an optimal viewing experience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.” The Webcast was made available yesterday for replay on Oprah.com. Internet industry experts blamed the crash on several factors, among them the inability of local Internet service providers to handle the traffic – much the same way local phone companies have trouble shouldering simultaneous phone calls when people try to vote for “American Idol.” 2018 to 2025 net worth $5–$10 (?) billion dollars. * The Discovery deal will start to bear revenue fruit. $1 billion plus. * The Apple deal will bear fruit. (Though undisclosed, a minimum value is at least $100 million for Harpo to get involved with their development of programming for ITunes/online consumption. * The food line of healthy pizzas and vegetable combinations with start to bear fruit (she’s always wanted to do this similar to Paul Newsman’s line which has garnered $125 million back to philanthropic causes—-she likes this idea of how to use celebrity to give back with food. * There’s no coincidence that the Weight Watchers parlay of buying in at $6 and selling at $60 with a significant ownership stake while publicly using the programming and losing weight isn’t synergistic to a food line. * She’s the CEO of OWN so she’s getting a real boss salary in the millions, $70+ million in ownership stake plus a salary in the tens of millions (and part of a building) by some estimates—-which might explain the trade off of ownership to cash—- * more cash plus show ownership of dozens of shows, * plus plenty of shows played from the catalog and none of the associated risks of stock exposure. The leverage play here was how do you dissolve a company in one part of the country and recreate it in another, not all of the employees wanting to move but keep revenue streams coming in to offset the shift of the major revenue cash cow, TOWS, no longer first run, with it’s star Oprah, no longer in the hot seat of having to be the 90% revenue creator? How do you resell your past work and create new work to sustain the company? You latch onto a bigger fish in a much bigger pond, ocean actually, than an ABC/Cap Cities/Disney network pond. Cable is a an (international) ocean. Nicely done, Harpo, Inc., Team & Oprah. Nicely done. Edit 1: Thank you all of the Upvotes and Comments and I have read the Private Messages with further Questions so here is the link to Jeffrey Jacobs “thinking” in a nutshell, a book I hear he uses regularly and gave him some framework to business. Hence why I got it—-How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth eBook: Martin S. Fridson: Kindle Store Edit 2: I will link here all of my Oprah Answers within the next few days that are about the marketing design of “Oprah” to create a marketing effect and details about specific deals as well as celebrity. Further Information: How did Oprah Winfrey become such an important and powerful person? What is her social significance? In hindsight, did Oprah Winfrey make a mistake by ending her talk show and launching the OWN cable channel? Smile, Kyle #KylePhoenix #TheKylePhoenixShow

It is cheaper to do in-studio shows than outside of studio location shows because of all of the time, people and transporting of equipment. When you watch TV—-fiction or not—-look at how many shows occur indoors or outdoors (Star Trek is a great example) and even over a season you’ll see that to “go” somewhere is a limited amount of episodes (which is why studios build realistic city streets/Western towns, etc.—-the whole Tyler Perry town he’s built on his studio lot——because that reduce costs. Oprah being in studio, in Chicago most of the time meant that owning the building lowered the associated costs. And now you see why COVID forced so many shows to shutdown and me to revamp how and where I filmed. yes, we all lost quality but we didn’t increase costs.)

I had to figure this all out, particularly when working out the Vessel deal, looking at YouTube and Amazon and others.

• What’s my number?
• What’s my shows specific episodic value? Therefore I know what is a profitable deal to make or not.
• What this also presses me (and others) to do, know, see—-is how long can an enterprise/TV show run for?

Over time it should become cheaper to produce but can you get the same valuation back on the original content library plus/as new content? The trick then becomes creating perennial content or it’s called “evergreen”.

(If you have a favorite TV show that was on a long time and then announced it was ending—-they ran the numbers and sussed out it would cost more to produce or not break even, or more commonly, the cast/talent and team, becomes more expensive to pay the longer it goes on—-you generally start at one rate and get more expensive over contractual time—-so it’s cheaper to end and then move into selling reruns, syndication, selling/licensing to a streaming platform, DVDs, selling or leasing to cable TV.)

Now you both understand Oprah’s why to do 100 Best shows, why to do the Discovery deal for her OWN channel, and how I’ve been able to mentor that down to my own production system and show.

Plus that gives you insights to how I reconsider each contract negotiation from the first of 10 years from 2009, to 5 years and then considering 5 to 10 years forward. Plus the further consideration of expanding the format from 1 day to 5 days for some, part or all of the future 10 years—-probably divided up into (as Oprah did) 2–3 year multiple consecutive contracts).

A sitcom, drama, talk show, etc. produced and shown over a network (which is made up of affiliates (the local stations around the country) generally runs low range (reality shows—-under $250k to $1 million per episode. A sitcom $1 to $2 million and a 1 hour drama $2–$5 million per episode. Cable shows can go as high as $10 million per episode.)

How does that translate to videos/online shows and public access created materials?

As I mentioned before my friend Banu Suresh and her show YogaXPress have launched hundreds of episodes on YouTube. When she or I made our agreement with YouTube, for our content to be monetized—-we signed an agreement not to reveal what they going monetization rate was per click, subscriber, etc..

So I can’t tell you specifically for YouTube.

What i can tell you is that her show and mine use some of the same set ups, technology, staffing etc. so each episode has a valuation of approximately $35k to $100K. It is considerably lower than network TV shows because of two factors

1. Being on cable TV. Cable isn’t paid for in the same way that network TV or a streaming service )the closest comparison) is paid for. You pay your Spectrum bill——say $100 a month. That money is divided amongst Spectrum as the carrier company and then down to each individual channel. HBO, Showtime, ESPN, CNN, Discovery, A&E, Lifetime, and other big channels that bring in the most people/watchers/subscribers—-have the highest divisional rates. So HBO gets like $5 a month from your $100. Discovery gets between $5 to $8, and when Harpo, Inc. owned 50% of 1 of its 8 channels, that rate was divided down again. It came to about $150 million a year to OWN, Oprah’s network—-which is why when Discovery merged with Scripps and bought back the stock/ownership of OWN, in exchange, she/Harpo, Inc. got a CEO position to run the network at $70 million in salary a year after a buy out of $70 million for each year contracted year from 2009 to 2023. Yes, from about 2009 to 2021, you were directly/indirectly paying Oprah every month when you paid your cable bill. The way this works out for public access and other shows on cable is that advertisers pay to have their Pepsi, Ford, Downy sheets next to shows that are drawing the most eyeballs/subscribers your cable box rats you out about what you’re watching and when. Network TV has a set of people around the country who have a Nielsen box in their homes and those 100,000 to 1 million people—-their viewing habits are recorded and that’s how TV ratings are reconciled).
2. Lack of advertisers on public access. The exchange for the studio being paid for by Spectrum (out of all cable subscribers monthly payments) is that the 4 channels—-through MNN here in NYC/Manhattan—-are advertiser free. Essentially leveling all of our shows to NOT being subjected to objective measurement about what is or is not popular by “ratings”. Which means that things that are important—-like political votes, community board meetings, etc. aren’t paired/competing against the ratings of The Walking Dead. Which gives my show and YogaXpress time to be any kind of show, develop an audience and not be beholden to the cable companies ratings system nor advertisers whims, of financial support or not. However as advertisers (and your cable payments) are how Spectrum says afloat—-Spectrum doesn’t pay us directly nor indirectly—-like they might a channel—-instead they set up a studio with staff, as a form of write off deduction. (This gets into a deeply media murky area with the advent of the internet, streaming and cyberspace and YouTube like platforms, which I understand but is difficult to explain the next levels of. Suffice to say, you, Banu or I, own our shows and agree in contract form to first run new episodes there, MNN, before any other media outlet.) The space allowed our productions is that only a small number have moved to pay for view cable or network TV or cable TV so we’re so infinitesimal on the budget line and for the public good that we aren’t paid for nor bought as a regular TV production entity. But we don’t reap the financial rewards from the advertisers and channel in direct episode payments in exchange for free use of the production facilities (which is generally most of the operating expenses besides talent of any production). Hence why Banu is experimenting with her show’s library on YouTube.

I’m at best Intermediate in the understanding and implementation of the business of the media business but from Harpo, Inc. and other materials, and asking a billion and one questions at the studio and other studios—-I’ve learned a lot about how to steer my show. It has also helped that I have had the publishing business off and on since I was a teenager—-so I’m familiar with products, royalties, licensing, etc..

Very Hard # 4-Concept Outcome-Monetization

How to make a profit off of the TV show, especially when the product starts as public access?

It is possible, as of this writing, I know of myself and two other producers, who do so. One, got his show picked up by a cable channel and another regularly goes to night clubs, tapes the parties and broadcasts it, for a fee. The third way is to adhere to the contractual agreement—-and give the network first broadcast rights—-meaning just that—-when the final edit is done, that video is broadcast first on he MNN channel. Then you can use it for whatever you want. They’ve been encouraging producers to put their shows online—-I have a friend Banu Suresh, who does a yoga show—-she’s done it for years and years so she has hundreds of episodes. Her grandchildren helped her digitized it all and post it all and then upload it all to YouTube. (I directed two episodes and am in a third).

The studio encourage and even teaches how to start a YouTube Channel. Luckily or rather fortuitously, I started mine before I started the TV show in 2009, the first episode broadcast the last week of 2009 but I already had a few dozen videos uploaded to YouTube.

The problem is that a channel on YouTube is profitable at big numbers—-over 100k to 1–10 million views—-not huge profitable, but you start making a few hundred, thousand dollars, a month.

The other option in about 2015–216 was signing up with a hybrid “studio” platform called Vessel, started by one of the men who started Hulu. If you posted on them before you posted on YouTube they paid higher rates and you just had to move your audience to them first and then post on YouTube afterwards (as YouTube didn’t have a first run contracted agreement—-which it sort of can’t because of so much TV and movies on YouTube. YouTube is the Black Hole of copyright and legal first run posting—-most productions now getting ahead of the pirated curve by posting clips or their whole shows themselves.)

The deal with Vessel fizzled for me because my show is on cable and therefore a different measuring metric than clicks online, so it was impossible to accurately measure how many “viewers” I had as easily as they could other YouTube creators. Upwards of 500,000 is great——-if it had been online—-but cable is still a different medium than online—-Vessel hadn’t figured out how to sustain itself with YouTube creators, much less TV productions.

I opted to focus on the show production and then book-publishing production and then/now have come back around to video production because creating a video is like creating a short TV episode. It’s easier to create a full TV episode or Vlog—-video blog—-say I turned this post into a 10 minute video—-and then chopped it down.

It’s also easier now that I have a bigger content library. The vessel deal started negotiations when I had about 200–250 episodes. Yes, a lot but always about 10% ends up being repeats, I’d just started out so I was on the job learning—-leaving me with a viable 100+ episodes. Great for TV rebroadcast but not for online. A better metric would be over 1000 episodes at prime for that kind of platform n order to give a breadth of material to an audience to sustain interest and make a profit.

Also the show was being rebroadcast on other stations and through satellite so I had to concentrate my attentions to TV/cable first.

Vessel eventually fell apart as a company because they couldn’t get enough of us producers to pull in enough of our audience to sustain a company——that had started on $125 million dollar loan. Remember they had to immediately pay producers for their clicks. Yes, perhaps they should’ve pulled in 1000 or more of us independent producers to rapidly and massively expand their content library categories but they went all in to YouTube creators. Bet. And lost.

Streaming Platforms

The next venue is of course streaming, which means Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.. The problem is, similar to the problem Oprah Winfrey/Harpo, Inc. was facing, is that she had 4600+ episodes of TOWS, I have 600+ now (to the end of two to three more contract cycles and changing the broadcast times to 5 times a week—-about 2000+ episodes) in our content libraries.

Harpo had absorbed all of the costs and yes, monetized (sold) the show for 25 years, first run to ABC Cap Cities, distributed through King World, both bought by Disney/Paramount/Viacom. The question becomes when it’s no longer on a network (she was on ABC) how to re-sell it again?

And that is my overall question/planning.

(That’s where about $1.5 billion of her net worth is held, the TOWS show episodes—-$385k multiplied by 4651 episodes.)

Harpo’s answer was to partner with Discovery to create the OWN network and rebroadcast some shows and re-package others into 100 “Best of” Episodes—-and then sell that to Discovery Network to broadcast on the channel, she half owned. As Harpo In. geared up into a production company, no longer exclusively reliant on TOWS or Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Nate Berkus, Rachael Ray—-they went on to produce over 50+ more and counting (which is how most production companies survive—-make more content, sell more content.)

This gave Harpo a chance to make more shows, more movies, expand beyond just Oprah, which they did.

Of course that $500 million Discovery took as a loan to float them for several years (paying Harpo, Inc. yes, for Oprah led and created content, several times over. Kind of like Walmart making it’s own generic food brands and selling them in Walmart's and then paying another, smaller company (Harpo) for making the ketchup.)to help didn’t hurt.

While I may not have deep pockets to market/resell my shows, I can take some pages out of Harpo’s playbook and be thoughtful and selective about which shows I put where and for what kind of rebroadcast, as well as create other supporting fare/shows/videos to funnel an audience back to a Kyle Phoenix hub where the episodes will be. That’s the extremely hard part—-so far I have several blog sites and video channels—-I work in layers over time—-layering in blogs, books, videos, TV show episodes, eventually yes, it will be thousands, because it’s numbers that drive numbers.

Very Hard # 4-Strategic Planning

I started doing detailed planning books, charts, graphs probably around 2010–2011 and then got super detailed over the years, until finally I brought in Michael Gerber’s E Myth system to do a complete company overhaul, evaluation and SWOT in 2017 through 2018. Doing so led to having a company plan that expanded to 2020 and then another formal overall plan-review in 2025.

What I’ve done, through lots of study, learning about the TV/streaming market is to look at creating a hybrid form. Most shows do so but not so directly.

This post/article/blog will be repurposed—-and if you’re starting from the beginning, what I wish I knew then——the E Myth process—would be to create a single thing/product—-say “How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies” and create it along a systematic plan of:

1. a blog,
2. a tweet,
3. a short set of baking and review videos,
4. a long form TV show episode interview and comparing cookies
5. and segment interviewing people about cookies.

Now imagine those 5 things all uploaded at once to 5 separate platforms or even more? That’s what I’m doing now, but from the backend and to some things breaking them down to those formats.

What happened was I started videos in Kyle Phoenix Videos on YouTube in 2009, The Kyle Phoenix (TV) Show in 2010 and then collected all of my workshops/TV notes into paperback and eBooks, and published those in 2013—-which have sold nicely. Simultaneously creating about 3000+ blogs/articles on multiple platforms from 2009 to Present.

(I have a paranoia/concern about any of my businesses, notwithstanding to contracts/agreements—-a platform—-Amazon, YouTube, others, being able to shut me down. What I generally do is I check out several, settle on one to make a contractual agreement to, but keep another 2 waiting in the wings to move my content over to.

I recommend you always backup your work and be prepared to do the same. I got serious about this 2015 to 2018 when I saw how if I’d gone all in to Vessel from the initial discussions, I would’ve been screwed in terms of labor reproduction and potential revenue loss.

Also you have to consider international services that are mimics of the Americanized/Western ones. Often YouTube videos are shared through several continents—-which is a good thing—-as long as you are thoughtful about the value of the content you post. I’m on sites all over the world now, by my hand and by the hand of others reposting.)

Extremely Hard-Synergy (Branding and Fame)

Starting small and linking everything helps tremendously so though I can’t directly advertise anything for sale by me or my companies on The Kyle Phoenix Show, I can use all of the other products to link back to one another:

1. Kyle Phoenix Videos (YouTube, Vimeo, Hi5, Metacafe, Sclipo, etc..)
2. The Kyle Phoenix Show (MNN-Spectrum Cable and satellite TV/cable; Kyle Phoenix Website)
3. Kyle Phoenix paperback and eBooks (on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, Google Books, etc..)
4. Kyle Phoenix Blog (Blogger, Word Press, Kyle Phoenix Website)
5. Kyle Phoenix on Quora
6. Kyle Phoenix on Medium
7. Kyle Phoenix on Reddit
8. Kyle Phoenix Podcasts
9. Kyle Phoenix Newsletter/Magazine
10. Kyle Phoenix Website

When you start production on a TV show you’ll want a dozen ways to reach out to, capture and reward your audience for staying with you. I have a couple thousand email addresses that I regularly send out to using Constant Contact as well as about 20,000 followers, and about 10 million reads/views on a variety of sites.

It takes time but the better you build a system, the more people can click through for different kinds and depths of content and that feeds back into marketing (you want to be the top of Google searches. I am. It took awhile) which feeds back into an audience for your TV show.

Branding

Yes, you’ll notice many things have my name on it and even the same or similar pictures. The temptation is to create wild, fun, fantastic names for stuff but from a marketing standpoint, you want a fan/audience member to connect to you and be able to find you. I can see through several dashboards folk from all over the world simply typing in my name or a piece of it and finding content. That’s what you want—-name files with your name, name shows and productions with your name above the title, name newsletters as a representation of yourself.

Fame

This is an odd one. I’m often recognized around NYC for multiple reasons. One, there aren’t many people working in the LGBTSGL community like me who are Black, out, and have books, a TV show, etc.. Two, TV is much bigger in the individual consciousness of about 90% of people than I think any of us can completely fathom——until you have a TV show. I don’t watch TV because it’s banal in some ways and predictable in others but to other people it is near-God. That means that being on TV with promote you, elevate you fast Very fast. Being on consistently for years will make people familiar with you in unexpected ways. I’ve been stopped on the bus, in the streets, recognized in lobbies.

It’s never gotten weird or dangerous but I do take a moment to assess the person, listen to my instincts. Most people are grateful—-the work, my work, the work I’ve presented of others has helped them in some area—-a guy wrote me about how my book on relationships—-Good Men for Men——he followed it religiously and found a relationship!—-which infused me with a sense of joy.

In person workshops I do cover a huge gamut of topics, I wanted to transport to TV, expand the audience, help more, do more—-and I’ve accomplished that——so I’ll encourage you to think about what you’re putting out on the airwaves and cable and streaming. I’m very conscious about the consciousness of my work. Thinking about branding and fame/popularity across so many platforms, I’m very thoughtful about the work I put out. I’m honest, I’m myself, I’m direct but I’m not purposefully graphic or produce salacious material to garner attention and that presses me to look at how I present work about LGBTSGL issues and sexuality, race, business, writing, finances, etc. in a way that is both accessible, accurate and useful.

One of the reasons why I chose a 28 minute, single episode a week format was that I didn’t want to have the churn of 5 episodes a week—-260 a year. and I also didn’t want to do a salacious show, I wanted it to be substantive.

Extremely Hard-Creating Substantive Programming

Like the LGBT Issues in-series occurring now, I wanted to create programming that was useful, educating, valuable and most importantly had some longevity to it Which is one of the reasons why I’ve strayed away from pop culture issues, politics because those episodes get dated faster. In a hundred years dealing with emotions, meditating, learning, good books and movies, cultural issues, financial management, sexuality——all of those things will still be relevant—-so I aim for stuff to turn into episodes that are good ten years ago and will be useful in ten years. That then converts back to a long lifespan of a product and all I have to worry about is repackaging (like the Best of The Oprah show episodes on Discovery. See, I told you I get excellent mentorship from Oprah/Harpo, Inc.!)

Which means that yes, I might have hundreds of episodes and classes that I’m digitizing or ready to go but I think about how to produce it at this next level. TV is one form, video another, streaming another, blogging/vlogging another so the raw material changes or has to change and grow. I also try to produce complete bits, try some things out, try out some other things rather than just do a massive dump of a library onto the internet. If you create a show, whether non-fiction or fictitious, you’ll have to consider how you 1st distribute it and then redistribute it or chop it up. It will work better if you chart out a general plan or how things all connect in and then branch out.

The methodology I usually attach to a new branch is can I make a 10 year commitment to it—-to books, to videos, to bogs, articles, vlogs——10 years. Now the beauty comes at about Year 5-Year 10 where your Content Library is so expansive that you can drop say 100+ items onto The Kyle Phoenix Blog on Quora and open up a whole new audience, get new opinions and reactions and even isolate the most popular stuff or mix and match the media types. Which is why when I can interview in a freer way after COVID dies down, I will be able to shift the timeslots of the show form once a week to five times a week and have interviews and chunks of in-series to broadcast. The hardest part of a TV/cable contract is you have a certain amount of hours you have to fill to keep your timeslot so you want to remain fresh and thoughtful and not just spewing pabulum.

But the upside is that you increase viewership, notoriety and exposure by being on 5 days a week—-probably for 2–6 years.

To that broader point on social media, it takes time to establish presence there, it took time for me to get to top spots or even just you type in my name and my work appears. It’s like tilling a garden and slowly year by year expanding it a few more acres from the center and then a few more and a few more. Which is why I’m thoughtful about contracts and partnerships because I’m looking at will this partnership last (their platform) for multiple years, if something goes wrong or they suddenly break up or cut me off, how can I repeat or replace them?

Whether it’s hashtags or mentions or thousands of videos or blogs, you have to look at it as brick by brick by brick to building the Wall of your media business. And even as fun TV it’s still business. Take it seriously from the get go.

How And When Does It End?

15, 20, 25 years?

You must have a sense of knowing when it will end, how to end it, when to try a new venture. Which means doing things in long term planning but incremental steps.

I have in-series chunks planned out and contract shifts and ends known and therefore re-ups planned out. Again looking at my next Harpo-esque move with the whole Content Library or a substantial part of it. Which is why I’m thoughtful as to not dropping 600+ episodes onto YouTube—-I’m sure eventually Ill slowly integrate hundreds from goal of multiples more, but I have a few thousand other things-videos, to drop first. Remember all of your content, synergized will (should) lead people back to the rest of the content—-I think of it like a giant web.

The goal, which I’ve semi-reached, is to have this web of products, materials, videos, books, articles, blogs, vlogs, that are numerous—-thousands (we’re at about 4000+, with plans to multiply that)—-on stable platforms, where I have minimal upkeep and just sloth off a penny, a thousand pennies, a million pennies, while the material—-and this is important——is worth hundreds of times more, intangibly, than the monetization. I think that the past/current and future profits have been generated because I try to create products where the item/engagement itself is worth 100x the cost, in a person’s life.

If you can conceive the above, start by mapping it out and situate your TV show, whether informational or entertainment, or a hybrid (as I work at—-edutainment) I think you can have a good, interesting TV show (even from public access) streaming, on cable and beyond!

#KylePhoenix

#TheKylePhoenixShow