There’s a Brand Opening in Hollywood – Who Can Fill Oprah’s Shoes

Calling all females in Hollywood!

Oprah Winfrey announced she is leaving the Oprah Winfrey Show after 25 years as the face of afternoon television for women — a role that helped position her as one of the most powerful women in entertainment and the world. The official end to her run as the queen of daytime TV is scheduled for September 9, 2011 — plenty of time to position a successor.

Those are big brand shoes to fill.  Who can step up to the challenge?  Some might point to Ellen Degeneres who is already positioned firmly with her own talk show, but Ellen and Oprah represent very different brand messages and images.  Ellen is a comedian at the core and Oprah is a reporter.  Both connect with audiences in different ways and audiences have very different expectations from them.

So that brings us back to the question — who can fill Oprah’s shoes?  Who can step up to the plate and build a similar brand position?  Let’s face it.  Oprah Winfrey’s power and influence transcended the afternoon talk show circuit.  She became a global influencer of everything from the beef industry to publishing, entertainment, and many areas in between.

What do you think?  Can another person fill Oprah’s shoes?  Can you think of anyone who could be up to the challenge?  Who has a brand image and message that could rival Oprah’s — if not now then in the future with a bit of positioning and promotion?

Image: Flickr

Jimmy Fallon’s New Logo

With Jay Leno moving out of his late night talk show spot on NBC, Conan O’Brien is moving up one hour and Jimmy Fallon is taking Conan’s old time slot with Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  To honor the move, Jimmy Fallon let visitors to his show’s website pick his show’s new logo.  Number Seventeen was brought in to design the new logo.  They have also designed for Saturday Night Live, and you can definitely tell based on the three design choices for Fallon’s show.

Unfortunately, these logo choices offer little differentiation from brands like Late Night with David Letterman.  I would have liked to see bolder logo choices that move further away from the expected branding of late night talk shows.  These logos seem very safe, and it appears Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will end up being more of the same late night TV that people are used to.

The three logo choices are below.  What do you think about them? [Read more]