The Oprah Effect: The Industry Behind Her Show’s Guest List

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Harrow is constantly contacted by people vying to appear on the show. “I get everything from corporations to your local poodle shop,” she said. “I even get murderers — like, ‘I just got out of prison for murder and I want to get on the Oprah show.’ “I get people who are merchandising items, health techniques; everybody who’s got a diet book or has an idea for a diet book.”

She strongly recommends against trying to get on Oprah before going on other shows. “What I recommend is that you don’t even contact Oprah unless you’ve done a lot of local shows,” she said. “You can’t run a marathon unless you have walked a mile. Walking a mile means that you need to get on local shows, then you get on regional shows, and you work your way up to national shows. But it’s very, very fast-paced, and I recommend that you get a lot of experience on radio, so you can be fluid in speaking about your topic. And you should also have a demo tape for national TV. People want to see that you can handle yourself in a situation where you can speak for 10 to 20 seconds in a conversational manner and be relaxed about it.”

Harrow also recommended that media training progress slowly if possible, so clients will gradually grow comfortable on the interview couch. There’s plenty to make them nervous – they will be talking to Oprah in front of a studio audience of 300 people, and as many as 49 million watching on television worldwide.

“I would say it takes quite a lot of practice,” Harrow said. “I always start with a nice interview, and very slowly, until my clients get the soundbites down, and then we practice the other types of interviews. I’ll go though the  rambler [interviewer], the interrupter, the nice [interviewer], the uninformed, and the hostile. I always recommend that people work with the questions they don’t want to be asked so they will get the feeling of what it’s like to be on the hot seat. Once people feel like they can deal with it, then their confidence level goes up.”

Here are 10 tips to getting on Oprah’s show from Harrow’s book entitled “The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah.”

#1: Tape and watch the show

#2: Explore Oprah’s website

#3: Get to know Oprah’s preferences.

#4: Pitch a hot topic.

#5: Put together a winning press kit.

#6: Create six dynamic soundbites.

#7: Make sure you’re “blurbable” – that is, that you can speak your message in 10-20 seconds.

#8: Get booked on local shows first.

#9: Build your credentials – and practice your public speaking – by teaching.

#10: Wow the producers with brevity.

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