Yes, she’s Queen of all Media, but to Discovery, she’s Life itself

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/01/2010 (5734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PASADENA — There’s bad TV, average TV, good TV and great TV.

At least, that’s the way most television watchers would tend to view things.

For the people who run the U.S. version of Discovery Channel, the scale seems to go one rung higher.

Bad. Average. Good. Great.

And then….

Oprah.

How else, I couldn’t help but wonder, could the folks at Discovery (U.S.) explain their Life-altering decision to re-voice one of the best series ever produced for television?

In what could only be an attempt to give it a bit more audience-grabbing star power in this celebrity-obsessed country, the American cable science channel’s executives delayed their premiere of Life — the brilliant and visually stunning 10-part BBC series that premiered in Canada late last year — long enough to remove the narration by renowned naturalist and documentarian Sir David Attenborough and replace it with Oprah Winfrey’s reading of exactly the same text.

Why, you ask? Well, I certainly wanted to know.

When Discovery’s portion of the U.S. networks’ semi-annual press tour finally arrived, I posed the question to network president/GM Clark Bunting. His answer left me no more enlightened than before.

"We thought that Oprah has that iconic voice, and after hearing a bit of the read, we just simply said, ‘We think this is the person who can bring Life to life,’" Bunting offered. "Sir David is obviously a well-trained, well-known naturalist, zoologist and biologist. We thought Oprah could really open up the editorial opportunity for the show in a different and unique way."

Hmmm. I pointed out the fact that Attenborough is probably also the best-known narrator of nature documentaries in the world, and his is a voice that Discovery’s audiences around the world — including the U.S. — have for years trusted and enjoyed. So, again, why Oprah Winfrey?

"Again, we thought the editorial promise would be opened up by Oprah," said Bunting. "I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I think it’s one of the best reads I’ve ever heard. I don’t think it detracts from the series at all. We have all the respect in the world for what Sir David has done in a long and distinguished partnership with us. This is one where we thought we could open that editorial up a bit, and we made that decision."

Another TV-critic colleague tried another angle at getting an explanation.

"How much of the decision was based solely on Oprah’s name recognition?"

Bunting responded with basically the same explanation for the third time, and then BBC producer Mike Gunton, who worked on the original series as well as this Oprah-cized U.S. edition, tried to make it make sense.

"I must say that I’ve worked with David Attenborough for 20 years; the first thing I ever did on natural history was with him," said Gunton. "He is a wonderful narrator, but listening to Oprah’s voice, I have been very impressed, actually. There’s a wonderful warmth, and it does bring something different to the program than David does… I think she has got a real talent for delivering narrations for this type of content."

And Sir David Attenborough doesn’t?

Bad TV. Good TV. Great TV. Oprah.

I guess it’ll remain a ratings-related mystery.

But hey, that’s Life.

 

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brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca