Oprah is one of the biggest names on the planet, and her presence on Apple TV+ makes it a viable option for many potential viewers out there. For Oprah, it’s about reach, and having an even bigger audience all over the world. And she makes that perfectly clear in a new interview.

The Hollywood Reporter has the report on Tuesday, detailing Oprah’s work with Apple to get her no documentary series surrounding mental health on Apple TV+. She also goes into some detail about her transition away from the 60 Minutes program, and why she decided to go all-in with Apple.

First, Oprah talks about her own platform, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). She doesn’t shy away from the fact that OWN has plenty of viewers, but to reach even more people she needs Apple’s assistance. Whether that’s the Apple TV+ platform itself, or the marketing muscle that Apple has, Oprah sees potential there. She has a multi-year deal with Apple, so the docuseries is just the start.

“Apple exposes you to a whole lot more people. The thing that I’m really, really excited about — as I said that day — is creating the world’s largest book club. And if I want to do a film or a doc series … The best place for [my docuseries on mental health] is not on OWN. Because you don’t have the bandwidth and you have to create a completely different audience and then you have to have marketing.”

The deal with Apple will see Oprah giving the majority of her creative efforts to Apple TV+. As a result, Oprah decided to walk away from a deal she had in place with 60 Minutes, opting instead to work with Apple only:

“I’d actually gone to [former 60 Minutes executive producer] Jeff Fager prior to the whole CBS (pantomimes an explosion) and said I was going to be working with Apple and that it didn’t mean I would never do something [with 60 Minutes] but I would probably be taking all of my energies and putting them into whatever I wanted to do at Apple.”

However, Oprah doesn’t discount the option to coming back and working with CBS in the future:

“It was an interesting experience for me. I enjoyed working with the teams, and I’m probably going to work with some of the freelance people on my Apple stuff, but it was not the best format for me. Never a good thing when I have to practice saying my name and have to be told that I have too much emotion in my name.”

When Apple took the stage earlier this year to briefly talk about her next endeavor with Apple, she pointed out just how many devices are out there. So the fact that Apple already has a potential audience base is obviously a big deal to her.

The full report is available through the source link below.

Our Take

Apple has so many different big names attached to Apple TV+ at this point. But it’s hard to argue that Oprah isn’t the biggest of the bunch. Will her creative efforts actually take off with Apple’s own original content? Can Oprah help Apple TV+ be successful? Those the questions that will be on a lot of people’s minds later this year when Apple TV+ launches.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]