Oprah Winfrey announced on her show Thursday that Walgreens will offer free blood-glucose screenings today for Type 2 diabetes at all of its 24-hour pharmacies and at its Take Care Clinics from 11 a.m. to 7 tonight.
Anyone 18 or older can get the finger-stick screenings. No appointment is needed.
The Walgreens clinics will also offer free glucose testing through the end of February from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 4 p.m. on weekends.
Winfrey devoted her show Thursday to diabetes. Nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes, which is caused by the body's inability to adequately break down sugar in the blood. Blacks and Hispanics have especially high rates of the disease.
Leave it to the synergy genius of Oprah & Co. to find a way for the daytime talk queen to be in two places at once.
Oprah's new cable network debuts next January. But her daytime talk show will run through September 2011, and her talk show contract forbids her to appear in another talk show on the cable network until the original gig ends. So does that mean we won't see Oprah on the Oprah Winfrey Network for its first nine months?
Of course not. In fact, not only will she be the promotional face of OWN as it launches, but the New York Times reports today that one of OWN's first shows will be a reality show ... about the end of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
"Behind the Scenes: Oprah's 25th Season" will begin airing on OWN when the network starts in January.
Says the NYT:
Christina Norman, the chief executive of OWN, said in a telephone interview that "Behind the Scenes" was, "the thing that everybody wants to see, in some ways: How does it get made? What happens when it goes wrong and what happens when it goes right?"
She said the producers would compile the weekly episodes as quickly as possible. Ms. Winfrey will share her memories about her talk show in "Behind the Scenes."
Four other OWN shows are being announced today:
"Kid-napped," in which children rescue allegedly workaholic parents
"Miracle Detectives," in which spiritual skeptics investigate such matters with believers
"Sentenced," which chronicles a women's prison in Indiana
"Search," in which a woman finds long-lost family members
In other news, Oprah's favorite interior designer, Chicago's Nate Berkus, is indeed getting his own show -- but not on OWN. "The Nate Berkus Show" will launch in the fall in syndication through NBC.
So let me tell you a quick something about me, the guy who (by default) writes most of this O blog. I am one of the many who claims to be on Team Coco. But my reasons for that have absolutely nothing to do with liking his performance on "The Tonight Show." I didn't. I've never found the guy that funny, when he took over Letterman's gig or when he got Leno's. I have no objections to him and his comedy, by any means, I just am more of a Letterman kinda guy and have been since I was a teenager staying up late waiting for Dave to put on the Alka-Seltzer suit.
Full disclosure: Never watched Leno, either. He's brutish and broad and way too common-denominator for me on a regular basis. Which is exactly why he killed in the "Tonight Show" ratings all those years. He's got a line on the heartland funny bone. And, sad though it may seem to some, he'll most likely kill again when he returns to "Tonight" on March 1. Or at least by summer when we (thankfully) forget about this nonsense.
I'm breaking the fourth wall here because I'm confident that I'm like most of the people who also jumped onto Conan's bandwagon -- like the 94 percent who claimed they were "on his side" of this dreadful Jay-Conan melee in a poll on Oprah.com. If everyone who claims to be on Team Coco had actually watched the show, none of this would be happening. But we didn't, really. Jay failed at 9, and Conan failed at 10:30, and we at least had a cat-fight to entertain us as NBC did what corporations do to protect their bottom line.
So why, if I wasn't necessarily a fan, did I and others chose sides? Two reasons: 1. Everyone loves the underdog, and 2. Leno -- as evidenced in today's chat with Oprah -- has proven himself to be pretty selfish, even if it's kinda understandable.
Throughout today's interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Jay sounded like he was running for something in Tuesday's Illinois primary. Three times he referred to job creation and saving jobs. When Oprah asked him point-blank if he ever thought he was being selfish by reclaiming "The Tonight Show," that was his defense: He had to save the jobs of his staff. But that wasn't his first answer to the question. He initially said, "I like the job and all that comes with it."
When we get down and wallow in the sometimes unpleasant truths of human nature, who can blame the guy? He's right: For the first time in about 60 years, "The Tonight Show," under Conan's brief watch, was on its way to losing money. And Jay appears to be quite sincere when he says he had no idea that NBC would turn to him and offer a return to "Tonight." ("Nowhere in my wildest dreams did I think they'd ask me to go back," he told Oprah.) He's no fool: He took it. And while we wish he was somehow nobler, he's not. Conan himself said it's the best job in the world, and today Jay said the same. He almost had a shaky junkie's look in his eye. Primetime was methadone for him, but now he's got the good stuff again. Ahhhhh.
Oprah, to her credit, pushed him a little near the end. She and Jay go way back; she wasn't exactly Mike Wallace, of course, but she did have the courage to pursue the sticking point that brought so many of us fair-weather fans over to Team Coco.
Oprah: Didn't you think you were the reason [for Conan's departure]? Jay: No, I wasn't the reason. The reason was the ratings. ... I'm not sure what I could've done differently. Oprah: [somewhat incredulous] Lots! You could've walked away! Jay: To me, that's the ego. To say, "OK, I'm outta here."
That's his rationalization: It would have been more obnoxious for him to walk away with his nose in the air than to be what he sees as a loyal employee and go back to doing what made the bosses so happy. Again, who can blame him? An extremely powerful network came to him with supplications, on their knees, saying, "We screwed up. You da man." In addition, he's the hero, saving jobs. "It's a team effort," he said of his staff. "As long as I'm working, they're working." (Which Conan realized, too, which is why he made sure his staff was ably covered in the massive severance from NBC.) Much earlier in the conversation, Oprah asked Jay if he ever considered saying no to NBC. Without an instant of hesitation, he answered, "No."
"I always thought I was doing the right thing," he added.
The only aspect of this interview that rose to the level of poignancy was the fact that Oprah was doing it. She just announced she's quitting her show. She recognized some appropriate exit point and will wave a triumphant farewell next year after 25 years on TV. She expressed some of what's going through her mind about this looming threshold: "Who am I without a TV show when I've had one for 25 years?" she said she's begun asking herself.
Jay laughed off her departure, though, appearing not to believe that she'll actually go through with it. "I'm not going anywhere, neither are you," he said, claiming that they'd both keep on forever. ("If you're a gunfighter, you like to die in the street," he said -- his second fighting metaphor of the interview.) Oprah was amazed. "You don't believe I'll do it?" she said of leaving her show. Jay smirked: "I believe that you believe it."
A great Michelle Shocked song features this climactic refrain: "The secret to a long life is knowing when it's time to go."
Here's a transcript of today's entire show: 01-28-2010.pdf
OK, let 'er rip, and let's be done with this silliness. What did you think about Jay's interview today?
Details are emerging about Jay Leno's salvation-seeking chat with Oprah, which airs Thursday (9 a.m. in Chicago on WLS-Channel 7).
First, he describes NBC's recent switcheroo -- canceling his primetime show, yanking Conan O'Brien from "The Tonight Show" and reinstalling Leno there -- as "a huge mess." That's the only quote from Jay shown in this teaser ad from Harpo.
Oprah is also seen asking Jay whether he ever considered he was just being selfish. Cut to a shot of Jay looking pained. (Who knows if that's fancy editing or an actual reaction shot.)
Then, AP reports that Leno tells Oprah he hasn't even spoken to Conan throughout this whole mess. "It didn't seem appropriate" to do so, he says, but the two might talk later: "I don't know. I think it -- let things cool down and maybe we'll talk, you know."
(At least he didn't call Conan "a gentleman" again ...)
Leno adds that he didn't take the jokes against him personally: "They were jokes. And that's OK," he says in this report of the show. "It's what we do, you know? You can't -- it's like being a fighter and say when you got punched in the head, did it hurt? Well, yeah. But you're a fighter. That's what you do."
Leno is scheduled to return to "Tonight" on March 1.
Harpo has made an offer for Conan to appear on Oprah's show, but it hasn't been confirmed. He's allegedly forbidden to give interviews for several months under the terms of his severance from NBC.
Apropos of maybe nothing: Here's a snippet of video from mid-2009 in which Jay and Oprah chat about who Jay would take with him to a desert island: Conan or Letterman. And he picks ...
Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey celebrate the 50th anniversary of "The Tonight Show" in 2004.(NBC)
Word is: Jay Leno wants to go on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to tidy up his tarnished image.
The appearance could happen as early as next week, according to the report this morning in The New York Post.
"Oprah and Jay love each other," a source told the Post, suggesting that Oprah will play nice with the beaten-down talk-show host. "They talk constantly."
"We're still discussing it," an NBC representative said of the idea.
A lotta folks, from fellow talk-show hosts David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel to pundits and bloggers, have been piling on Leno for acquiescing to NBC's plan -- yanking Conan O'Brien from "The Tonight Show" after only seven months and returning Leno to that post after his spectacular failure in primetime.
But don't look for Oprah to make peace between Leno and Conan on the show. The deal he signed to leave NBC mandates that he stay off TV -- and can't give any interviews -- until late this summer.
UPDATE: It's set. Jay Leno will be on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" this Thursday, Jan. 28.
The next musical star to appear on Oprah: Susan Boyle, this Tuesday.
She'll be performing "Who I Was Born to Be," a song written especially for her and that appeared on her debut album. That album's run at the top of the British charts was just cut short by Ke$ha's "Animal."
Here's hoping she behaves herself in Chicago. As she prepared to fly to America for the Oprah appearance, she ... er, acted a little strange at the London airport. The Daily Mail explains:
"Britain's Got Talent" star Susan Boyle shocked passengers at London's Heathrow Airport after she started shouting obscenities and singing into a mop.
The singer ... suddenly grabbed the mop from a cleaner and began to treat it as a makeshift microphone.
During the bizarre outburst she also used the mop to polish passengers' shoes, according to onlookers at the VIP lounge on Tuesday.
Complaints were made to British Airways staff, who tried to calm her down but instead she fled the Terminal 5 lounge, yelling, "I've escaped, I've escaped!"
A source told the Sun: "It was chaos. Susan was very restless and agitated from the minute she walked in and immediately started making a scene. She was singing and dancing around, shouting obscenities at full volume."
Has our dear Susan become savvy enough in the ways of celebrity PR to act loony in order to get, well, write-ups like this? Maybe she's just a free spirit. Or maybe she's certifiable. Oprah will, no doubt, get to the bottom of it.
Still, she's looking fab these days ... with or without the rumored Botox!
The appearance was taped earlier this week. Here are some quotes from Susan's chat with O:
"Pretty awesome to be recognized in the street and asked for autographs. I'm getting quite a few fan letters and cards from around the globe. I'm loving every second of it."
"It takes a bit of time to take in because it happened so quickly. I'm really enjoying every second of it. It's like a dream come true."
"My mom died two years ago. After that there was a wee period where I didn't sing. You try and keep going through that pain and that's what I try to do with my singing. I am very slowly getting over it. One of the reasons I applied to the TV show was to see if I could perform in front of an audience."
Lady Gaga canceled a concert Thursday night, claiming illness -- and yet there she was live on Oprah today, looking perfectly fine.
Thursday night's show at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., was canceled -- after the opening acts had already performed! -- "due to exhaustion and dehydration." Lad Gaga tweeted an explanation later: "An hour before the show I was feeling dizzy and having trouble breathing." The performance has been rescheduled for Jan. 26.
This morning, though, she looked perfectly hydrated and spunky -- with spiky toothpick hair --as she performed a medley of her hits on Oprah's weekly like Friday show. She was even healthy enough to swing a gold, spiked ball on a chain into the windshield of a taxi on the stage.
"I am so devastated," she continued on Twitter, discussing the cancelation. "I have performed with the flu, a cold, strep throat: I would never cancel a show just based on discomfort. I hope you can forgive me. I love my little monsters more than anything, you are everything to me."
UPDATE: There's been some debate online and elsewhere about whether Lady Gaga's performance on Oprah this morning was live or pre-taped. (An earlier MTV report here claims the appearance would be pre-taped.) A rep at Harpo this afternoon, however, confirmed to us that the performance was live and occurred today.
Even Oprah feels that way. That's why she's launching a campaign against distracted
driving.
Harpo Productions on Thursday announced Winfrey will call it the "No Phone Zone" campaign.
Winfrey plans to sponsor a pledge on her Web site, asking motorists to commit to not text or talk on their phones while driving. On Monday, the
talk show host plans to feature those who have lost loved ones in distracted-driving accidents on an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
In a statement, Winfrey says she's "passionate" about the issue and asks viewers to spread the message to their families, friends, co-workers and community.
Winfrey says she wants people to know "how absolutely stupid it is that we continue to text and drive."
OK, play time over. Oprah's back this week with new shows! (See the widget above for what's scheduled this week.)
PLUS, "American Idol" loser and publicity stunt architect Adam Lambert says he's been invited to come to Chicago and sit on Oprah's couch. Oprah's show doesn't usually confirm upcoming bookings, but Lambert tweeted "Oprah: def true." (Translation: The rumors are true that I will be appearing on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'!")
Lambert told "Extra": "I'm really excited. I want to meet her. We have the same birthday! She's incredible. What a great leader, communicator, philanthropist. ... I'm really curious what she is going to ask me. Maybe she will dig and make me cry."
And Oprah herself is looking for Lambert fans, posting this notice on her Web site: "Calling ALL Adam Lambert Fans!!! Did you vote for him as many times as you could? Were you holding your breath when the new American Idol was announced, hoping and praying it would be HIM? If you are a HUGE fan of Adam Lambert's, e-mail us now and tell us why you want to be in the audience for this once-in-a-lifetime show."
Lambert, of course, has appeared on Oprah's show once before, via Skype. In the video, he promises that, in case you were wondering, he is "born to be wild," and that he will come to the show to perform live when the album is out. Which it is.
Oprah's site has also put out the same call for Lady Gaga fans (she was just performing here this week). Dare we dream of the two of them on the same show ... and performing a duet?!
And kissing?!
UPDATE: Lambert's appearance will air next Tuesday, and the Lady is on this Friday. Here are some first-look details about Adam's gig.
Lordy, you commenters take this stuff so incredibly seeeeeriously ...
Just because we love it: Here's a compilation of Oprah screaming the names of various celebrities as she introduces them on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" during the last 25 years. Funny, but it eventually kinda makes your teeth hurt ...
These video clips show President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama gabbing about gifts -- present, past and maybe the future -- during the special:
Oprah had this to say about the experience of Christmas inside the Obama White House:
"From the very first day they moved into the White House," Oprah said in a statement about setting up this special, "I started calling Robert Gibbs and asking not for the first interview because No. 1, I didn't think I was going to get the first interview for the first 100 days -- but I wanted an opportunity to sit down with them in a comfortable setting that all of America would be familiar and relate to. So I started asking when they first moved in to do a Christmas Special because I wanted to be at the White House during Christmas time and to experience their first Christmas in the White House. So this has been in the making for a very, very long time."
She goes on: "There are 27 trees and all the ornaments and all of the decorations and we were able to go to the green room, where Thomas Jefferson used to have lunch, and apparently they've not let anybody film in there before. But I got to interview the president in the green room, where Thomas Jefferson used to eat his lunch. So everywhere you move through this space, it's filled with so much history that it's pretty hard not to think about that as you're walking through the halls."
It's not all home deco and holiday hoopla. "The President gave himself a grade," Oprah said. "This was not about grilling the President, this was really about me wanting to come and experience Christmas at the White House -- their first Christmas with them. So I wasn't here to grill him, I was curious as to what he thought he had done, what kind of job he thought he had done and ask him for his grade. You'll see what the grade is. The grade might surprise you."
On Monday, Oprah's production company, Harpo, announced a shake-up at the top. Button-down president Tim Bennett, 60, announced he'll retire in May and move to Santa Barbara. He's being replaced by not one but two insiders: Sheri Salata, longtime executive producer of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and Erik Logan, Harpo's executive VP.
But in announcing their appointment, Oprah said in a statement: "Harpo Productions is a world-class production company in Chicago and will
 continue on after 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' sunsets."
Does that mean at least the company is staying in Chicago?
Apparently, given this positive affirmation Salata gave to the Tribune: "We're not going anywhere," Salata said Monday. "For more than two decades, you have this relationship with Chicago -- Chicago being our hometown city -- so that is our charge here, to keep this Chicago studio strong. Without the 'Oprah' show, there definitely are some challenges to that. But at the same time, without the 'Oprah' show, the whole world has opened up in terms of the ability to take the time to do other things as well."
What other things? That remains to be seen. For whatever it's worth, Logan added this businesspeak in that same statement from Harpo: "Harpo has built its reputation on consistently first-rate content with massive audience appeal on multiple platforms. Our history of proven success, combined with our unmatched production values and our ability to cultivate talent will be key drivers of our future growth."
The race is on to snag the first big interview with Tiger Woods after his late-night car wreck and allegations of infidelity (the tally of women claiming to have carnal knowledge of his putter is now up to six).
Oprah, ESPN and the Golf Channel say they've requested on-camera interview; HBO Sports also put in a request but was turned down, spokesman Ray Stallone told USA Today. CBS's "60 Minutes" also is likely in the hunt.
Don Halcombe, a spokesman for "The Oprah Winfrey Show," also told them they, too, have reached out to Woods. "I do know there was a blog report that Oprah had personally called Mr. Woods himself -- that is not true," Halcombe said.
But Oprah seems a likely choice for any public confession. The sports networks are following the drama, but this is only an indirect sports story. Oprah is the natural and comfortable home for such discussions -- and she has the demographic of women Woods may want to speak to in this particular instance.
Even Woods' advisers agree. The UK Mirror reports: "The golfing star's team of lawyers and PR advisers are desperate for Woods to spill the beans on Oprah's sofa, possibly alongside his devastated wife Elin. A source said: 'Everyone around him believes it is the only way he will salvage any respect or even attempt to rebuild his family man image.' "
If she lands the interview, what should she ask him?
People caught up with some of Oprah's pals, too, to see what they had to say to about her decision to quit her talk show in 2011:
Martha Stewart: "She'll do another show. She's evolving. She's fabulous."
Gayle King: "I think that Oprah always makes the best decision for herself. I really do. And I have a feeling she will come up with some things to do. She has a very full life ... We don't need to worry about her filling her time, I promise you that! Life is good for her."
Everyone's rushed to their keyboards to pontificate on the big news: that Oprah will shut down her daytime talk show in 2011 to concentrate on her new upcoming cable network.
Here's a run-down of what's been said thus far tonight:
Sun-Times TV critic Paige Wiser points out that, hey, just a few months ago Oprah shut down Michigan Avenue and hollered to the throng about how wonderful a city Chicago was and what a beautiful backdrop it made for her show. So ... yeah, uh, Oprah. Was that a going away party?
Mayor Daley's reaction: It's the media's fault, he says, apparently because we had the audacity to inquire who exactly was paying for that Boul Mich street party. "She loves this city, and I will be talking to her," he said tonight, "but again, that became a big rhubarb of the Chicago press: Beat up Oprah. And so, you keep kicking people, and people will leave. Simple as that."
Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert (who once dated the queen of talk shows) thinks this move is all about Oprah's forward thinking: "Scheduled TV is no longer where the audience is. It's not the shows that are slipping; traditional television itself is slipping. I think Oprah will announce she's shifting into the new mode. I predict she'll be on OWN cable, she'll syndicate overseas, she'll have same-day reruns, she'll stream on the Internet, she'll have an online archive of popular and legendary shows."
The list of repercussions of her decision is long. For CBS, the owner of syndication rights to her show, it means the loss of its signature program and millions of dollars every year in revenue. For ABC stations, where her show was largely seen, it means the loss of daytime's most popular program, a generator of giant audiences leading into evening news programs.
The big winners are Discovery Communications, which is partners with Winfrey on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) that is due to launch in early 2011, Ellen DeGeneres and Warner Bros., which syndicates her daytime talk show and all the TV stations that will no longer have to compete against Winfrey in daytime.
A source summed up the situation neatly for The Hollywood Reporter: "As one syndie veteran summed it up for me, 'If you now have "Oprah," you're depressed; if you don't, you're ecstatic.' "
Rumors, rumors, rumors for weeks. And now confirmation: Oprah's ending her show in 2011.
Oprah is reportedly announcing live on Friday's show that she will end her rule of daytime TV talk at the close of her 25th season, on Sept. 9, 2011.
A statement from Harpo Productions president Tim Bennett was sent this evening to TV affiliates, saying:
Dear Friends:
Over the past several weeks, my team and I have had conversations with many of you to help address your questions about the future of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Of course, the one question we couldn't answer was the one that only Oprah could. And tomorrow, she will do just that.
But before she speaks to her loyal viewers, we wanted to share her decision first with you - our valued partners for more than two decades.
Tomorrow, Oprah will announce live on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that she has decided to end what is arguably one of the most popular, influential and enduring programs in television history. The sun will set on the "Oprah" show as its 25th season draws to a close on September 9, 2011.
We welcome you to share this news this evening with your colleagues and viewers. As we all know, Oprah's personal comments about this on tomorrow's live show will mark an historic television moment that we will all be talking about for years to come.
We want to thank you for the partnership and friendship we have shared over the years. Your invaluable support has helped us to create the phenomenon of the "Oprah Show" that we've all been so proud to be a part of for the last 24 years. My staff and I will be calling all of you directly tonight and tomorrow. We look forward to speaking with you.
And, if you think the last quarter century has been something, then "don't touch that dial" as together we plan to make history in the next 20 months...and beyond.
Yours sincerely,
Tim Bennett
President, Harpo, Inc.
Now the question remains: Will she stay in Chicago?
Last week, rumors swirled that Oprah would be moving her show to Los Angeles, so she could be better located to oversee the launch of her upcoming cable channel, OWN. A Harpo spokesperson denied that report at the time.
MSNBC mentions unnamed sources saying "that Winfrey will host a new daily talk show on OWN, and will also host specials for the network." (This was reported on a blog earlier this month.) But no one yet is saying where that will take place.
The New York Times, however, reports that when Oprah informed her staff of the decision she said "she will not transfer the show to cable. She is expected to produce new programs for OWN, and may appear on some of them."
The timing of the move coincides with what was shaping up to be a tough renewal of syndication for "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Local affiliates, many of whom are suffering from decreased revenues, were beginning to balk at the show's high price tag -- especially since her ratings had begun to slip, giving them less bang for the Oprah buck (even though this week's Sarah Palin interview went through the roof).
The show's syndicator, CBS TV Distribution, also issued a statement this evening: "We have the greatest respect for Oprah and wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors. We know that anything she turns her hand to will be a great success. We look forward to working with her for the next several years and hopefully afterwards as well."
