OWN, is anyone watching any of the shows on this network?

Sadara · 12-29-2011, 03:23 PM

I use the watch Oprah religiously when she still had her talk show. I tried to watch some of the shows on OWN, but most of them suck. I've read some articles about how bad the network is doing and I'm not surprised at all. There is only one show coming up that I'm even interested in and it's called Oprah's Next Chapter. She's hosting it so I figure it's going to be better than every thing else on that network.

Anyway, anyone else watching anything on OWN? If so, is it any good?

modnar · 12-29-2011, 04:00 PM

I'm not. My cable company added this to its HD tier recently, so apparently someone is requesting it.

hummingbird_206 · 12-29-2011, 05:44 PM

I tried to like it, but really just don't. First annoyance is that it's only in SD from my cable co. Second annoyance was that I'd set a show to record and what was aired wasn't what was scheduled.

I watched the Behind the Scenes show of Oprah's last season, and that was interesting. But everything else I tried did not hold my attention. The Judds, Shania, Chaz Bono all could have be entertaining except they took about 2 hours worth of story and stretched it out over several hours by repeating the same scenes over and over again. And the same shows repeat over and over again. Obviously they didn't have enough programming to fill the days.

I tried to watch Rosie when the show first started, and I thought it was awful. Stupid games and Rosie talking over her guests. I've given up on that one, too.

If it ever makes it to HD on my cable co I might give it another try. But haven't given it a look in several weeks.

WhiskeyTango · 12-29-2011, 05:53 PM

I can only assume that Oprah's billions and refusal to admit failure are the only things keeping this network on the air.

Hoffer · 12-29-2011, 06:10 PM

I don't even know if I get the channel.

hummingbird_206 · 12-29-2011, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTango

I can only assume that Oprah's billions and refusal to admit failure are the only things keeping this network on the air.

According to this article, Discovery is picking up the bill.

YCantAngieRead · 12-29-2011, 07:40 PM

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

(Yes.

)

My husband and I have gotten oddly addicted to Dr. Phil reruns. I also watch Lisa Ling's program, although I totally missed that there was a second season and need to catch that somewhere, as it's quite good.

I'm also intrigued, but haven't watched, the show with the guy traveling who is in the wheelchair. He seems to have a really geeky sense of humor that I think I'd like.

gossamer88 · 12-29-2011, 08:19 PM

I don't, but I don't anything on Lifetime either.

sieglinde · 12-30-2011, 10:47 AM

Lisa Ling is good. I watched the Shania Twain, Dutchess Fergie, the Judds and the one about the daughter and father who won the Oscar for a movie I never watched. Of those three, Shania Twain seemed like the most decent person and her regaining her singing voice was very interesting to me as a singer. Fergie was interesting also and she obviously was not even trying to do the things she would have learned from being on Weight Watchers. I did not like either of the Judds or the father and daughter in the other one but I watched all of the episodes. I watched a show that was shown as a marathon all on one day about a man who teaches surfing in San Diego who has an autistic son. The Rosie show is weeknights in primetime. I would watch it if it was daytime. (maybe a cable time zone problem) I do like the Documentary Club.

sharkster · 12-30-2011, 10:55 AM

I've watched most of the Lisa Ling shows. I watched the Fergie & Judds 'reality' shows. (HATE country music, but there's something about Wynonna that I always liked) I watched some of Oprah's shows that discussed some of her best Oprah Show episodes. I watch most of the Rosie shows. There was a series about several women in prison (forgot the name) that I watched. For some reason I'm always a sucker for prison shows. I've watched some of Oprah's profile shows (also forgot the name - d'oh!).

Those are all that come to mind immediately. I think it is a channel with promise but one year does not a successful channel make, especially when it's on the upper tier of digital channels. While it seems odd, there are a LOT of people who either don't have cable or only have basic, so they wouldn't get channels in this tier.

I know there are many people out there who absolutely hate the fact that Oprah even exists and breathes air, and that's - well, that's whatever it is. But I think that OWN will be successful once they are settled in regardless of that faction.

Sadara · 12-30-2011, 11:51 AM

I did notice last night that OWN is finally in HD in my area. That will improve my viewing chances. I just can't bare SD any more.

I read an article yesterday that said Oprah doesn't like a lot of what is on TV. So, I assume that means she likes watching the shows that are on OWN. If the shows don't improve, it makes me wonder if her TV preferences don't match up with the rest of us.

I did think the Lisa Ling show was good, but I never got around to creating a season pass for it. I might try to catch it on reruns!

sushikitten · 12-30-2011, 09:29 PM

I watched the Dr. Berman (?) couples sex help show and wanted to catch the Fergie and Shania ones but I forgot about them and now I'm not even sure we get the channel (we've since moved).

RandomTask · 12-30-2011, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sieglinde

Lisa Ling is good. I watched the Shania Twain, Dutchess Fergie, the Judds and the one about the daughter and father who won the Oscar for a movie I never watched. Of those three, Shania Twain seemed like the most decent person and her regaining her singing voice was very interesting to me as a singer. Fergie was interesting also and she obviously was not even trying to do the things she would have learned from being on Weight Watchers. I did not like either of the Judds or the father and daughter in the other one but I watched all of the episodes. I watched a show that was shown as a marathon all on one day about a man who teaches surfing in San Diego who has an autistic son. The Rosie show is weeknights in primetime. I would watch it if it was daytime. (maybe a cable time zone problem) I do like the Documentary Club.

Clearly made a big impression if you can't remember the people, the show or the movie. ;-)

FireMen2003 · 12-31-2011, 12:35 AM

I've watched Lisa Ling, Sweetie Pies, the behind the scenes of oprah, the doc on the lady in prison in california, the doc about angola state prison in louisiana and dr berman show. Ill probably watch oprah new show though

sieglinde · 12-31-2011, 09:02 AM

I found those people totally forgetable. The father acted like an immature a$$ and the daughter just knew how to push his buttons. Movie was "Paper Moon" The young girl got the Oscar for it.
I had never even heard of Shania Twain and enjoyed her story.

hummingbird_206 · 12-31-2011, 12:10 PM

Tatum and Ryan O'Neal. I watched that one, too. It was very interesting, but another one that would have been a good 2 hour show that was stretched out way too long with the same scenes repeated over and over. Mainly it seemed to be an advertisement for Tatum's new book.

bengalfreak · 01-02-2012, 08:16 AM

I thought the O'Neal's was good. The Judd's seemed to be also, but I just caught the tail end of it. Looks like they were in meltdown mode and that's always fun. The Shania Twain and Sarah Ferguson shows were extremely boring and I only made it thru because my wife wanted to finish them. Dr. Phil's pretty good, but why watch reruns when you can catch first run stuff on the network? Rosie's show is so bad its easily the worst thing I've watched this year. I did watch Welcome to Sweetie Pie's. I thought it was above average but not sure I would invest in a second season.

All in all, I don't think I'll be making anything on OWN must see TV, unless of course, the boss insists.

DeDondeEs · 01-02-2012, 07:36 PM

What, do you think Oprah is going to put a person/show on that is better than her? She didn't get rich being stupid. She took a play out of the Martha Stewart Sirius channel playbook.

RandomTask · 01-02-2012, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sieglinde

I found those people totally forgetable. The father acted like an immature a$$ and the daughter just knew how to push his buttons. Movie was "Paper Moon" The young girl got the Oscar for it.
I had never even heard of Shania Twain and enjoyed her story.

Ah, Ryan O'Neal and his daughter Tatum. They're both severely dysfunctional. He has messed up all his kids. His son was a drug addict. Tatum is an attention whore. Married and divorce John McEnroe and with no where to make money wrote a book and used this show to pimp it. Very sad.

YCantAngieRead · 01-02-2012, 09:30 PM

Didn't he hit on her at Farrah's funeral or something?

gossamer88 · 01-02-2012, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YCantAngieRead

Didn't he hit on her at Farrah's funeral or something?

He did but he claims he did not know it was her. Don't know which one is worse

panictivo · 01-02-2012, 09:46 PM

The show Mystery Diagnosis on OWN is worth watching. It details actual case histories of people who suffer strange ailments. The symptoms get increasingly painful and disabling. Typically, the suffers go from doctor to doctor and get little help as the treatments have no effect or only affect the symptoms rather than the underlying cause. Sometimes the doctors accuse the patients of faking or exaggerating their illnesses.

Eventually, (sometimes after many years), they find a doctor who is able to diagnose the illness. Sometimes it is curable. Sometimes when it is not curable, they can only reduce the severity of the symptoms. They are always happy to finally get a diagnosis and angry they that it took so long to get a proper diagnosis. Sometimes, the long delay in getting treatment causes permanent damage.

It is an interesting show because you feel bad for the suffering the people go through, then relief when they are properly diagnosed, then anger at the incompetence of the medical system that is unable to help people with rare, but well researched illnesses. It is a little bit like a medical CSI show with doctors and patients searching for clues to solve the medical mystery. After you watch enough of the shows you start being able to guess the category of the problem as the symptoms pile up.

It seems that doctors can only treat illnesses they are familiar with and are not able to search medical libraries for symptoms / illnesses the way lawyers search law libraries for case law relevant to law suits. I think that is changing now that patients can do research themselves by typing symptoms into google and medical web sites.

It is very educational because it show lots of odd ways the body can malfunction and how one underlying problem can produce a wide range of symptoms. It teaches you to be more assertive and keep searching out new doctors when your doctor can't help. It teaches you to keep careful records of the progression of symptoms and treatments, and to be sure the doctor is aware of all the symptoms and when they occurred.

It seems like a large percentage of the illnesses in this series are autoimmune related. As the immune system starts attacking and destroying one part of the body after another new, apparently unrelated, symptoms start appearing. The doctors tend to see it as a series illnesses and treat the latest symptom instead of seeing the progression of an autoimmune disease that is treatable with steroids.

Some of the odd symptoms are side effects of tumors. Some are caused by genetic defects. Some are caused by reactions to parasites. Some are caused things that broke or did not grow correctly, but are easily fixed with surgery.

It is hard to watch a lot of episodes because they can be emotionally draining, especially the ones involving children.

busyba · 01-02-2012, 10:01 PM

It's lupus.

jsmeeker · 01-02-2012, 10:10 PM

I think I tried to watch something on OWN. It might have been that Lisa Ling show. Or something like that.

1) it's not available in HD on my cable system
2) whatever I set the TiVo record didn't actually air when the guide data said it would.

So, I kind of got turned off by it.

mrdazzo7 · 01-02-2012, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YCantAngieRead

My husband and I have gotten oddly addicted to Dr. Phil reruns. I also watch Lisa Ling's program, although I totally missed that there was a second season and need to catch that somewhere, as it's quite good.

These are the exact two things that I've watched on there. Only reason I even knew the channel existed was when I came across Dr. Phil while scanning through guide data and the subject matter of the episode was close to something my family was dealing with so I tuned in. I'm not sure how I feel about Dr. Phil, but if the show is covering an interesting topic I'll watch it. Same with the new ones. I also caught the Lisa Ling show a couple of times, it was pretty good.

I like documentary style shows and anything that covers people in general, so both shows fit... There are some episodes of Dr. Phil that are so interesting I genuinely want to know what happened to the people featured, especially since you're watching re-runs from up to five years ago.

StacieH · 01-03-2012, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomTask

Ah, Ryan O'Neal and his daughter Tatum. They're both severely dysfunctional. He has messed up all his kids. His son was a drug addict. Tatum is an attention whore. Married and divorce John McEnroe and with no where to make money wrote a book and used this show to pimp it. Very sad.

I just heard something about O'Neal the other day that I didn't know. Apparently, when Fawcett died, she'd left her artwork to the University of Texas. They received all but one piece....a portrait of her by Andy Warhol. Someone was watching the O'Neal's reality show, and noticed the painting hanging on the wall of O'Neals office. Lawsuit hilarity ensues.

I hadn't heard anything about it, until I read about it last week. Thought it was pretty funny, actually.

laria · 01-03-2012, 12:57 PM

I am not but my TiVo seems to think I should be.

Whenever I switch to one of my TiVo's it's always on that network. We really need to just delete all the channels below 800 from our guide... if it's not HD I have no interest in watching it.

whitson77 · 01-03-2012, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by busyba

It's lupus.

notice the butterfly rash!

dbranco · 01-04-2012, 06:14 AM

We just watched her new show "Oprah's Next Chapter" where she interviews Steven Tyler at his house on Lake Sunapee, NH. Excellent, insightful interview with a very humble Tyler answering hard questions.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

sushikitten · 01-04-2012, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbranco

We just watched her new show "Oprah's Next Chapter" where she interviews Steven Tyler at his house on Lake Sunapee, NH. Excellent, insightful interview with a very humble Tyler answering hard questions.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Set to record. Thanks!