Oprah Winfrey's company sues creators of Oprahdemics podcast

NEW YORK • The company of American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey has filed a lawsuit against the creators of the Oprahdemics podcast, claiming that the programme misleads listeners into thinking she sponsored or approved it.

In a complaint filed late on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, Winfrey's Harpo said it is neither seeking profits nor damages from Oprahdemics creators Kellie Carter Jackson and Leah Wright Rigueur, nor trying to stop the podcast.

Instead, it wants a name change, saying the podcast and related live events dilute Harpo's "Oprah" and "O" trademarks, and wrongly capitalise on the goodwill that Winfrey has spent decades building.

Harpo, which is Oprah spelt backwards, said simply being associated with the "Oprah" brand often causes an "exponential" jump in sales, known as "The Oprah Effect" or "The O Factor".

The Oprahdemics website describes Dr Jackson and Dr Rigueur as historians and friends who break down iconic episodes of Winfrey's talk show and discuss the cultural impact of the "Queen of Talk".

In a statement, co-producer Jody Avirgan, whose company Roulette Productions is also a defendant, called Oprahdemics a "journalistic exploration by history professors and sincere, long-time fans of Oprah Winfrey".

He said Roulette "has been engaged with the team at Harpo for some time - while genuinely surprised by this, we hope to resolve it".

In an April interview with National Public Radio, Dr Rigueur called Winfrey an institution.

"This is a woman, a black woman, who has dominated multiple spaces and arenas" since the 1980s, she said.

"I say that in a way that doesn't absolve her of... constructive criticism or feedback or anything like that, but instead as recognition of... the institution of Oprah Winfrey and the Oprah Winfrey brand."

Winfrey, 68, is also an actress and philanthropist who parlayed her namesake Chicago television talk show, which ran in the United States from 1986 to 2011, into a media and business empire.

She is worth US$2.5 billion (S$3.43 billion), according to Forbes magazine.

REUTERS