It was announced today that, after just two years as CEO of the Oprah Winfrey Network, Christina Norman is out, and will be replaced by Peter Liguori , who is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Discovery Communications. Liguori will work both jobs until a permanent replacement for Norman is found.
Since its strong opening in January, OWN has struggled with viewership, getting ratings only slightly higher than the cable channel it replaced, Discovery Health. On top of that, Discovery Communications continues to pour money into OWN with $190 million to launch the network, plus another $46 million in the fourth quarter, and intends to spend another $50 million this year for new programming, such as the upcoming Rosie O’Donnell talk show.
With things not going as hoped at OWN, it was inevitable that somebody was going to have to bite the bullet, and that somebody was Norman.