Published on February 14th, 2012 | by James Johnson
0Oprah Winfrey Apologizes After “Begging” For OWN Viewers During Grammy’s
It’s no secret that Oprah’s OWN network is struggling to gain a foothold in the already crowded cable TV market and now Oprah herself has apologized after “begging” for viewers during Sunday’s Grammy awards.
During the awards show Oprah took to Twitter where she tweeted:
“Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Nielsen box.”
That tweet was sent just before her talk show Oprah’s Next Chapter aired and it quickly led to various outlets claiming that Oprah was “begging for viewers.
At first Oprah denied she was begging, tweeting in response to a Fox News reprot:
“The word ‘please’ is used as courtesy not a beg … ‘desperate’ not ever a part of my vocab … ‘unethical’ a little harsh don’t u think? Seemed like it made sense to me. Sorry if u’re offended.”
However the following day she released this statement:
“I removed the tweet at the request of Nielsen. I intended no harm and apologize for the reference.”
The tweet wasn’t removed however out of the goodness of Oprah’s heart, Nielsen forbids networks from attempting to directly appeal to Nielsen box owners.