Oprah Winfrey Begs for OWN Viewers Via Twitter
Oprah did what?! Apparently, the talk show queen didn’t feel like she was taking it too far when she tweeted a plea for more viewers—particularly Nielsen viewers—to tune in to the Oprah Winfrey Network. Now, Winfrey is getting serious criticism for sounding “desperate,” but are people taking Oprah’s tweet too seriously?
Sure, this isn’t something you would expect from one of the most powerful women in the world, but when you have as much attention as Winfrey, your every move is going to be analyzed. Such was the event that took place on the media mogul’s Twitter account.
According to Newser.com, Winfrey took to her Twitter before the start of her new TV show “Oprah’s Next Chapter” to tell her 9+ million followers, “Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Nielsen box.”
After receiving criticism, Winfrey tweeted back, saying, “The word ‘please’ is used as courtesy not a beg… ‘desperate’ not ever a part of my vocab… ‘unethical’ a little harsh don’t u think? Seemed like it made sense to me. Sorry if u’re offended.”
Winfrey’s bold tweet, in response to the media frenzy over her plea, received more negative attention and was repeatedly called a “defiant” reaction on her part. Winfrey soon after removed the tweets and issued an apology via the microblogging site.
The New York Times reported that Winfrey apologized after administrators from OWN and Nielsen spoke to each other regarding the issue.
“What seemed to most Twitter users to be a simple, if misspelled and desperate-sounding, call to watch a struggling channel was seen by Nielsen as a potentially serious violation of its policy. Nielsen measures the television viewership of a sample of roughly 25,000 households across the United States, and it works hard to ensure that the sample is not coerced to watch specific shows or channels,” the New York Times said.
Immediately after, Winfrey made a formal apology in a statement, saying, “I removed the tweet at the request of Nielsen. I intended no harm and apologize for the reference.”
According to Forbes, OWN has struggled over the past year to meet its projected audience, causing Winfrey to tweet her fans asking them to turn the channel to her network on several occasions. That’s right, this was not the first time she has sent out an Internet request in hopes of getting more viewers; however, because of the reference she made to Nielsen viewers, Winfrey was suddenly in the spotlight for going against Nielsen guidelines.
“On her birthday on Jan. 29, she tweeted, ‘As a birthday present could u all watch NEXT CHAPTER Sean Penn in Haiti with me tonite on OWN 9/8 ctrl. That would be a great gift,’” Forbes said.
Do you think Winfrey’s actions should have shocked the media as they did and deserved the negative reception, or was the incident blown out of proportion?
