5 Questions for Oprah as She Takes on Prime Time

(April 8) -- Oprah Winfrey isn't keeping her day job.

The queen of the talk show announced Thursday that she will take on prime time after her daytime show ends its 24-year run at the end of the year.

Her new show, "Oprah's Next Chapter," will air in the evening and will feature Winfrey interviewing celebrities in "unexpected places" like the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China, a press release said.

"I'm going to take viewers with me, going to take celebrities I want to interview with me" on travels, Winfrey told The Wall Street Journal.

"Oprah's Next Chapter" is just one of a series of 15 shows being launched in early 2011 by Winfrey's TV network and Discovery Communications. Many said the companies are placing a high-stakes bet that the daytime TV star -- and her brand -- can thrive among the dizzying array of evening cable shows like "The Biggest Loser."

Here are five questions for Oprah Winfrey as she prepares for her prime-time debut:

1. Can Oprah compete with "American Idol"?

For more than two decades, Winfrey dominated daytime TV. But with a nighttime lineup, the host will be up against some stiff competition. At The Boston Globe, Matthew Gilbert says the Oprah brand will be tested. "OK, so she can sell magazines, create blockbuster books, make stars, save the world, inspire millions, and move mountains," he writes. "But can she compete with 'American Idol'? This should be interesting."

2. Will her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) win over cable advertisers?

The Wall Street Journal's Sam Schechner says that will be the true test of Winfrey's success. Schechner said Thursday that Oprah's decision to move to cable "reflects a broader shift in the television business," where cable networks are succeeding and local TV stations are losing money.

"Buoyed by billions of dollars from satellite and cable subscribers' monthly bills, cable networks have become profit engines of the business," Schechner writes. "Meanwhile, local television stations, which long paid handsomely for programs like 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' have seen their business decline."

3. What's next for her book club?

Since 1996, Winfrey has helped turn millions of books into best sellers by promoting them on her talk show's book club. The Christian Science Monitor reported Thursday that OWN may be considering launching an entire show devoted to the book club. "The good news for the book world is that Oprah also said that she may appear in other OWN shows, "including a possible book-club show," the Monitor's Majorie Kehe writes.

4. Can those other shows succeed without Oprah?

OWN and Discovery are launching 15 shows, and not all of them can feature Winfrey herself. Last month, New York Magazine took a hard look at whether the shows could survive without the queen of talk front and center. "Ever since the OWN deal was announced, Oprah had been coy about how much she would appear on the new channel and what she would do with 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.' [Discovery Communications CEO David] Zaslav, who had played it cool at first, now wanted as much of Oprah as he could get. The analogy he started using privately was that Discovery getting Oprah Winfrey without 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' was like getting the NFL without the games," Robert Kolker wrote.

5. Which celebrities are on the lineup first?

The very day OWN announced the move from daytime to prime time, Harpo, Winfrey's production company, said John Edwards' former mistress, Rielle Hunter, is slated to appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" sometime this year. And media bloggers say celebrity guests will continue to be a major ingredient in Winfrey's success in her new series as well. "You hear that, celebs??" Perez Hilton wrote Thursday. "If Oprah contacts you for an interview, you go wherever she says!"