Oprah blasts back on TLC in Africa

It’s been over two years since Oprah first launched her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and there hasn’t been a sign of the channel in Africa.

Until now.

TLC will be going through a refresh and relaunch in mid-October and will change name to TLC Entertainment. The channel will also be introducing an injection of Oprah’s shows in two weekly OWN blocks, on Thursdays and Sundays.

Each block will feature various OWN shows including Oprah’s signature series Oprah’s Next Chapter – a one-on-one interview show, very similar to the interviews she used to do on The Oprah Winfrey Show. You may remember that TLC aired the Justin Bieber and Lance Armstrong episodes as once-off specials?

It’ll be on weekly and premieres on 17 October at 7pm with an interview with Rihanna.

Oprah’s recent and much publicised interview with Lindsay Lohan (post-rehab) follows directly afterwards, at 7:55pm. Beyoncé features the week after (24 October).

Other shows in the line-up are Oprah’s Master Class and Oprah’s Lifeclass. In Master Class, Oprah explores the journeys of famous people, the lessons they’ve learned, their success, their failure etc.

People she features include Condoleezza Rice, Simon Cowell, Morgan Freeman and Jay-Z who’s the first to be featured on Thursday, 24 October at 7:55pm – after Beyoncé on Oprah’s Next Chapter.

Oprah’s Life-class deals with life lessons and principles that Oprah follows in her daily life. She chats about them with different expert guests each week.

The programming block on Sundays is called Super Soul Sunday and deals with spiritual aspects of life, achieving happiness and personal fulfilment. Oprah chats about these concepts with various thinkers, authors, experts etc. The first installment starts on Sunday, 20 October at 10:50am.