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By all accounts, former OWN CEO Christina Norman’s tenure with the Big O was doomed from the start.
Even Norman said when she first spoke to Oprah about the big deal gig, something was off. The meeting didn’t go well- Oprah canceled at first because her dog died- and Norman herself admits not being on her game when the big interview came along:
Norman was so bad in the interview, she said she remembered Oprah saying, “I thought you needed hormones or something.” Norman also admitted: “This is not the kind of job, the kind of person you half-ass it for.”
Despite reservations on either side, Norman was offered and accepted the gig, only to be fired a few months down the line. But she came in for another big opportunity when she was pinged by another super-powerful female media mogul- Arianna Huffington. Huffington effusively described the convergence of circumstances that allowed her to scoop up Norman for the Huffington Post’s Black Voices section:
“It’s a great lesson for women, that when one door closes, another one opens… There is enormous pressure on high-profile women to succeed, to constantly prove themselves. I met Christina in Los Angeles when she was the head of OWN. After she left, I asked her if she wanted to do something completely different.”
In addition to her brief tenure at OWN, Norman helmed MTV before she departed the channel in January amid falling ratings. Huffington hasn’t expounded upon her plans for Black Voices just yet, but she indicated information was coming later this week. Women’s and parents’ channels are also coming to HuffPo, and Huffington snatched up OWN alum Farah Miller for that venture.
