Oprah offers Fergie her own show

I wonder if I told Oprah Winfrey about all of my debts, would she offer me a show? Probably not. But that’s exactly what the queen of daytime TV is doing with Sarah Ferguson.

(Fergie may host her own talk show)

Winfrey has reportedly offered the financially troubled Duchess of York her own primetime talk show that would air on her cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network, which debuts in January.

“Oprah made the call this week,” a source close to Fergie told The Daily Mail. “They spoke in person and, for Sarah, the offer is a ray of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.”

Ferguson appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in May, where she made a public apology after being caught by a tabloid offering her money to provide access to Prince Andrew.

The prince knew nothing of the “sting” and the Duchess later returned the down payment she had received.

On the show, the Duchess admitted she had been drunk when she was secretly taped accepting the money, telling O, “I was not in the right place. I haven’t faced the devil in the face because I was in the gutter at that moment.” Ferguson also described her actions as “idiotic and stupid,” but insisted her ex-husband and their two daughters remained supportive of her. The Duchess still maintains living quarters at Prince Andrew’s Royal Lodge, his official residence in Windsor. The two have always enjoyed a cordial relationship, even vacationing together with their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie.

“Oprah has known Sarah for some time and the Duchess went on Oprah’s show to explain herself after her most recent scandal,” continued the source. “Oprah has always been impressed by Sarah’s ability to pick herself up and reinvent herself.

‘She feels Sarah will be someone viewers of her new channel will be able to relate to on many levels — she’s a divorcee, a working mother, someone who has made some very public mistakes and a woman who, like Oprah, constantly battles with her weight.’

If the show does come to fruition, Ferguson would be based in New York but be able to return to England regularly to see her daughters. But despite all the commuting, it seems like an ideal way to make a living.

Oprah already has a few shows lined up for OWN, including Visionaries: Inside The Creative Mind, which features celebrities such as Lady Gaga and director James Cameron talking about their art; In The Bedroom with Laura Berman, a sex advice show; and Breaking Down The Bars about female inmates.

TVguide.ca