Report: Oprah Winfrey Demoted at OWN Network - East Idaho News
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Report: Oprah Winfrey Demoted at OWN Network

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030612 OprahWinfrey?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1338976874574Discovery Communications, Inc.(NEW YORK) — The flat-lining ratings at Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network have caused the network’s co-owners to strip the one-time talk titan of her executive power, and caused Winfrey to suffer a personal “tailspin” of drinking and binge eating, The National Enquirer reports.

It’s estimated the network has lost some $330 million.

Quoting an insider, the magazine says Discovery Communications’ “power coup” left Winfrey “in tears,” and she was informed of the bombshell move at a meeting that left her “feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of her.”

While Winfrey was allowed to keep her CEO title, it’s apparently just that, as she was deemed to be “too inexperienced to run the net­work,” according to the magazine’s source.

“She’s no longer in a position to make executive decisions or hire staff without consulting top Discovery executives first…For Oprah, this is a bitter personal failure and a devastating blow to her ego,” the spy says.

The publication had already reported that “Oprah hit the 280-pound mark as a result of binge eating and boozing over stress from her failing network, among other things,” and “…[f]riends fear she could hit 300 pounds over her current problems.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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