Reese Witherspoon Inks TV Deal That Puts Her In Oprah Territory
Reese Witherspoon is one step closer to becoming the next Oprah. Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine, has announced it will launch its own video on demand network, making Witherspoon a newly crowned queen of all media. The company jointly announced the new venture with AT&T. The ad-free VOD network will be available through DirectTV, DirectTV Now, and AT&T’s U-verse, according to Vanity Fair. The TV launch, which will feature Witherspoon’s first-ever talk show, Shine on with Reese, puts the actress firmly in Oprah territory as a talk show hostess and a network guru.
Shine On With Reese will celebrate “the stories of extraordinary women who have created their own unique paths to success.” Guests will include the very Oprah-friendly Ava DuVernay as well as trailblazers such as Dolly Parton, Pink, and America Ferrera.
Reese Witherspoon issued a statement on her new project, as posted by Variety.
“I am thrilled to have such like-minded, creative collaborators at AT&T to help Hello Sunshine pursue our mission of elevating and showcasing the voices of women that we have such admiration and respect for,” Witherspoon in a statement.
With her new venture, Witherspoon, who is both an Oscar and Emmy winner, now has her own production company, VOD network, a podcast, a Facebook Watch series, a lifestyle and clothing line, a best-selling book, and her own book club. The addition of the VOD network marks a major move toward an OWN-like media empire just eight years after pal Oprah Winfrey launched her own television network.
Oprah and Reese Witherspoon laugh off Vanity Fair's photoshop fail: https://t.co/plYvpC1ZBn pic.twitter.com/u1UsYM3aI0
— MTV (@MTV) January 26, 2018
Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey are friends. The two stars worked together on Ava DuVernay’s big screen fantasy flick A Wrinkle in Time, and they posed together for a recent Vanity Fair cover that included a hilarious photoshop fail. The women are so close that Winfrey could even be serving as a mentor to Witherspoon as she continues to expand her media empire.
During an appearance earlier this year on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Witherspoon joked about working with Winfrey on the set of A Wrinkle in Time. After Witherspoon played music in the hair and makeup trailer, Winfrey’s assistant informed her, “Oprah likes silence in the trailer.” Witherspoon was later called out for chewing gum in front of the OWN head honcho.
Witherspoon later explained that she wasn’t aware of the “rules” for working with the media queen.
“Nobody gave me the Oprah rules,” Witherspoon said.
Reese Witherspoon’s VOD interview series Shine on with Reese will premiere on July 17, while a second series, the home improvement themed Master the Mess, will premiere on September 4. To watch Hello Sunshine programs, viewers can tune to channel 1530 on AT&T’s U-verse or channel 1112 on DirecTV or search “Hello Sunshine” on DirectTV Now.
