Oprah Winfrey to Interview Rihanna, Opens Up About Need to Boost Ratings
Oprah Winfrey recently revealed that she will interview Barbadian pop princess Rihanna in August and admitted that some of her recent interviews may have been inspired by a need to boost ratings.
Winfrey recently confirmed that Rihanna would appear on "Oprah's Next Chapter" in the coming months while tweeting her fans. After her recent interview with the Kardashian family and rapper 50 cent who has publicly admitted having issues with Winfrey in the past, some questioned if the media proprietor was acquiring interviews for shock value rather than quality.
In an interview with online radio personality Kemp Parchment, Winfrey admitted that she may have chosen her most recent interview subjects to boost ratings.
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"It's the television business. So when people say, 'Are you trying to get ratings?' Everybody who's on television is trying to get ratings," she said. "For 25 years I tried not to think about ratings. I just did what I did because I had a contract that gave me the freedom of not [to] worry about ratings. But this is a business."
After reports surfaced that Winfrey may be fired from her OWN network, she denied the claims while admitting that starting the network was nothing short of difficult.
"I'm in the climb and anyone who's ever started a business, whether it's a cupcake company, or whether you tried to make sweet potato pies, you have to figure out how many and what the audience really likes and what the customers really like and that's all a part of it," she revealed. "For 25 years, I did 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' I loved it everyday and nobody remembers that climb. But I really am fine and I love that I have the opportunity."
Despite the rumors concerning declining ratings on the network, Winfrey still said she was grateful to be living her dream.
"How many people in the world, in particular, little black girls born in Mississippi at the time that I was, will ever have an opportunity to say, 'I have my own network,'" Winfrey asked the radio personality.
