The TV Zone

Well, we've certainly had fun speculating about this Ambassador Oprah business, haven't we?

But there comes a point - even a point in a blog that often relies on nothing but the sweet, heady, thin air of pure speculation - where we actually have to do a little reporting. (Very little, mind you - I'm not into heavy lifting here.)

I've spoken to someone who's reasonably familiar with the "Oprah situation" (let's call it) and I'm not at liberty to say who this person is, or why he - or she - is in a position to know what's going on. But he/she tells me that it's not going to happen.

I repeat: No way. Oh sure, he/she says: Oprah would like to be asked but she won't take it and she can't, and that includes any ambassadorship, including the one in the Court of St. James.

First, let's begin with the most obvious reason, and the one that everyone seems to have conveniently overlooked: She has a contract! Yes, one of those silly little things that bind you to something, and which you are not able to break, under any circumstances. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" is tied to her stations - many of them ABC affils and owned-and-operated - through 2011. That's about a year before the first Obama administration comes to an end.

Let me restate this: She cannot walk away from her contract. She will NOT walk away from her contract.

But let's say that something like this is still meaningless to the army of web speculators out there who really don't care about facts. Here's something that will absolutely, or should absolutely end any speculation:

She's launching a network. Launchdate is now sometime in the '09 (but more likely '10) window. I'm also told that there's widespread belief in the TV industry right now that O will take her daily syndicated show to air as the lynch pin of this new network, possibly in the primetime hours, when the '11 station deal lapses.

In any event, my source tells me, "there's no way she's going to do" the ambassadorship "because she's got her own network [via Discovery] and that's a huge undertaking. I know she's very involved in it and she's really put herself into it; she'll have her own show [on the new web] and she's developing a whole slate of new shows. This is her dream. I can't imagine her" walking away from it.

This person adds that "I don't see her doing anything else [in the Obama administration]. She doesn't have the skill set to do a cabinet post though I think she could clearly be an outreach person for the administration or a liaison person for anything from education to [health] to a million other things, including culture and the arts. But she's not at that point in her life" where she's ready to walk away. "Maybe in twenty years, but right now she's in the center of the storm."

This source adds, "She's one hundred percent involved in every aspect of this thing [the new network]. This is her dream come true. This is her chance to create her lasting legacy and this is really an on-going network that will survive her."