Hearing the
media drumbeat grow louder and louder, Oprah Winfrey has decided to stretch her
Lance Armstrong interview from one night to two.
So clear
your calendar for Thursday at 9 p.m. (as originally announced) — and now also
Friday at 9 — for “Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive” on OWN
network.
In Tuesday’s
special-inflation announcement, OWN promised that the cyclist would address the
“alleged doping scandal” that has plagued his career.
Armstrong is
going to come clean to Oprah, but not go into great detail about specific cases
and events, according to USA Today. Two nights is a lot of time to fill with
not-go-into-detail about specific cases and events.
Over the
years, Oprah has carved out a niche as the first Station of the Cross, on the
Road to Redemption for celebrities.
Most
recently, David Letterman discussed his office affairs with Oprah — aka the
Queen of the Confessional — to clean up his reputation as he was being honored
by the Kennedy Center.
And back in
2010, Jay Leno made his pilgrimage to Oprah before returning as host of “The
Tonight Show” show in March of that year. Leno sought absolution after being
blamed for Conan O’Brien’s resignation from the iconic NBC late-night show.
Leno admitted to Oprah that he’d “told a little white lie” when he announced on
the air in 2004 that he would “retire” after Conan took over “Tonight” in ’09.
Anyway,
Armstrong’s sit-down with Oprah is the only interview that the seven-time Tour
de France winner has given since he was stripped of his titles and dropped from
millions of dollars in endorsement deals. That happened last year after the
U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released an extensive report accusing the cyclist of
doping throughout his career.
Armstrong
received a lifetime ban on competing professionally. Late last year, Armstrong
resigned as chairman of the foundation he created, Livestrong, which has raised
hundreds of millions of dollars to fight cancer.
Oprah
herself told the gang on BFF Gayle King’s show, “CBS This Morning,” that she
added the second night because her interview with Armstrong went on for 2 1/2
hours. Although the first night was scheduled for 90 minutes, she explained
Tuesday, that includes only 65 minutes of interview.
Yes, 25
minutes of Other Stuff. So set your DVRs.
Oprah said
the interview will run over two nights because “we felt that to leave over half
of this on the cutting-room floor, after millions of people have been waiting
for years for many of these answers, would not be the right thing to do.”
Speaking of
Armstrong, during her appearance on “CBS This Morning,” show host Charlie Rose
tried to steer Oprah back to “this question of this man” and “how was he
different than you expected.”
He also
asked Oprah where she ranked this interview in her long career interviewing
celebrities.
And if
you’re thinking Oprah dismissed the former to focus on the latter — you win!
“How was he
different? I’ll let you be the judge of that,” she responded.
Then, she
settled in: “Back in 1993, of course, I did Michael Jackson live around the
world,” she said, but this Armstrong interview will be live-streamed around the
world — and on OWN, she said, which means, she said, “I think the number of
people who have exposure to it makes it the biggest interview I’ve ever done.”
To that end,
she urged folks to go to her web site to find out where OWN is located on their
TV menu, if they didn’t know already.
Oprah wants
to make OWN ratings history with Armstrong this week. To date her biggest OWN
number is the 3.5 million who watched her interview Whitney Houston’s daughter
last March, followed by the 2.5 million she snagged with a Rihanna interview in
August 2012.
Before it
even airs, the interview is being dissected, based on the tease clip that OWN
has sent out. One body language expert told Anderson Cooper on his daytime show
Tuesday that Armstrong was very excited and needed pacifying during his meeting
with Oprah – which is so obvious because he touched his nose and his upper lip.
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