TV Week has a story up on Oprah attempting to boost the summer ratings doldrums by having a contest:
In a bid to keep ratings up over the off-season, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" today is launching "Oprah's Summer Giveaway," a three-month -long watch-and-win contest.
The promotion, announced on Oprah.com, calls on viewers to watch summer repeats of "Oprah" in order to discover a Word of the Day. Once they've heard the word, viewers will be encouraged to visit Oprah.com, enter the word, and possibly win daily, weekly or grand prizes.
"Oprah" is partnering with Target, GE, Sony, United and Volkswagen for the contest. Among the planned prizes: Target gift cards; Sony Bravia TV sets, Vaio computers and video cameras; air travel; and GE appliances.
We definitely understand about summer ratings slumps. Our own readership plummets in the summer and if I thought giving away a couple of iPhones in the summer would help stave off the drops, I'd do it. But I think we'd need to be giving away something a bit bigger. Say a 55" Samsung LED television! If anyone at Samsung is interested in providing us with four of them (one for me, one for Bill and two for our readers) we'll gladly promote the hell out of Samsung.
I used to be a television hardware snob and was pretty partial to Sony and the Pioneer Elite line. But my first generation rear projection 61" DLP set from Samsung is almost 6 years old now, and I have had nothing but a positive experience with it. In fact, my biggest issue with LED and LCD sets is that screens bigger than 55" are hard (if not impossible) to come by. But anyway, I love Samsung! But it's not like we'd snub our noses at giving away a Bravia.
I know most of our regular readership doesn't watch Oprah, but I would be interested in hearing from the Oprah fans whether the contest will improve the chances they'd watch. I think it seems about as likely to succeed as us giving away a couple of iPhones, but I could be wrong.
As for the non Oprah fans -- LED, LCD, Plasma or, in the case of some of our hard core old school readers, 9" black and white?
Hey! I’m not a Luddite–I also have a (1977) 19-inch RCA XL-100 ColorTrak set, *and* a spare horizontal-oscillator module to keep it going. (It’s true, the convergence isn’t adjustable on these sets.)
I would start watching Oprah if she were giving away $2 bills, though.
I’m not an Oprah fan, however, I do think as long as this contest involves reruns, it won’t that successful. If a viewer has the choice to spend time with their kids who are home for their summer break, or watch an episode they’ve already seen during the school year, I’d LIKE to imagine they’d pick their kids.
LCD, please. I don’t want the FOX logo burned into my new TV screen!
I do not watch Oprah. I also do not watch television shows of any kind with giveaways on reruns just to get people to jump through hoops in order to perhaps have a small chance at some kind of prize. I have not been terribly thrilled with the recent trend to have folks enter these passwords and give up email addresses in order to have a chance to win. The few times I chose to participate in something like this I ended up with a flood of ads and, in some cases, spam follows and I end up changing my email address.
I think the ratings might get a small boost but not enough to bring it anywhere close to first-run showings. I will be surprised if it does.
How much do you want to bet you’ll be able to sign up for the super secret mailing list and get the word emailed to you everyday?
Heh, no bet. Probably be able to find it with a net search in 8 locations (6-7 unofficial) within a week of the start
I’d rather just hack Oprah’s personal PC and get it early…A new Vaio PC sounds OK.
She should show reruns of Tom Cruise jumping up and down on the sofa, that should work.
By the way, is Oprah really as skinny now as that picture indicates?
I’m reminded of the lines from Tom Arnold and Anthony Anderson over the end credits in the movie “Cradle To The Grave”. They’re discussing who they’ll cast to play the characters in the movie – the movie they’re going to produce about the movie they’re in…
Tom: You know who we’ll get to play Daria?
Tony: Who?
Tom: Oprah.
Tony: Big Oprah or little Oprah?
Tom: Medium Oprah.
Tony: See, that’s the one I like ’cause the eyes are straight!
Don’t ask me what it means…
Hey Oprah, here’s a novel idea. How about disappearing for awhile every now and then? It’s not like we “can’t survive” without you for a while. You’re a good person. But just like too much beer, too much Oprah isn’t necessarily a goood thing. So how about instead of running your reruns, give some up and comer a chance by letting them put a show in your time slot for the summer. Art Linkletter eventually retired. Dinah Shore eventually retired. Johnny Carson eventually retired. You’re going to eventually retire, too. Gluttony is the strict sense applies to food. But if we broaden the definition a little, it can also apply to over-eating TV time (re: “my face needs to be on the TV screen all the time”). Just a thought.
Oprah rocks!