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Is Oprah Having Second Thoughts About OWN? She Tells Crowd: ‘It’s a lot harder than I ever imagined. If anybody asks you if you want a network, think about that.’

Sep 9, 2011  •  Post A Comment

Oprah Winfey talked about the downside of having her own network during a live online chat Thursday on Facebook, the AP reports.

Winfrey was interviewed for an hour by Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in front of an audience of Facebook employees at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Much of the focus was on Winfrey’s efforts to pump up her fledgling cable network, OWN.

"It’s a lot harder than I ever imagined,” she said. “If anybody asks you if you want a network, think about that."

The former queen of daytime talk added that deciding to launch OWN caused her to experience real fear for the first time in her life — and that her plans for the network include making it different from much of what defines today’s television landscape. Winfrey is the network’s chairman, CEO and chief creative officer.

"The fear is getting this right, and the fear is whether or not I’m ahead of my time,” she said. “I fundamentally believe people are yearning for something more, but if I look at, if you look at what’s on television right now it doesn’t look that way. The fear is I hope I’m right."

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