Oprah Winfrey is used to running the show, whether it was her hit daytime TV program or the fledgling cable channel named for her and which she rules as chairman and chief executive.

But this week's Oprah Winfrey Network shakeup, which included a 20 percent staff layoff, thrusts her into a new dynamic: power-sharing with a top executive from the company that's bankrolled OWN with $300 million-plus.

It's a crucial moment for the media queen, who made OWN her next big move after "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and for OWN itself: Can Winfrey work as an effective corporate teammate with partner Discovery Communications to turn the struggling channel around?

There's another bedrock question: Does a big enough audience exist for the earnest, uplifting fare on Winfrey's OWN, so antithetical to the blowsy charms of popular, sensational reality shows like cable's "Jersey Shore" and `'Keeping Up With the Kardashians?"

As important as control might be to Winfrey, she's also a savvy businesswoman and has been willing to take advice before -- and not just from Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil or her other TV health and wealth proteges. Her syndicated talk show's distributor made sure she stayed on track.

"In the past, when she was becoming too `New Age,' or becoming too distant, which can come with celebrity and wealth, the folks at King World would do a survey" and pass the results to her, said Bill Carroll, an expert in the syndication market for media consulting firm Katz Media.

As a smart broadcaster, Winfrey heard the public "and adjusted to what they were saying," Carroll said.

Winfrey started off slowly with OWN, busy wrapping her talk show's 25-year run last fall with much hoopla. She began exerting more control after leaving daytime, and as part of the executive turnover that began five months after OWN's January 2011 debut to disappointing ratings.

Christina Norman, who was dismissed as CEO in May 2011, had expressed hope that, within its first year, OWN would reach an average of about 400,000 viewers in prime-time among women ages 25-to-54. That would have been a doubling of the prime-time audience in that demo for Discovery Health, the channel OWN replaced.

For the year to date, OWN is averaging 318,000 total viewers in prime-time, a 9 percent increase over the same period last year.

It was philosophy, not numbers, that Winfrey focused on at the channel's launch. She was insistent that OWN would represent her talk show's message of self-empowerment writ large across an entire channel.

"What if I could take every hero who inspired me, every lesson that motivated me, every opportunity that was ever given to me and give it to you," Winfrey said in a promotional spot for OWN that showed her beaming against a computer-generated blue sky dotted by soaring balloons and puffy clouds.

Worthy, but is that entertainment? The high-water mark for OWN so far was the 3.5 million viewers for Winfrey's exclusive interview with Bobbi Kristina Brown, Whitney Houston's daughter, which aired earlier this month. The interview, while sensitively done, spun off the tabloid-tragic end to Houston's checkered life.

(It was also a reminder of the forum that Winfrey's talk show once gave celebrities who wanted to explain themselves. Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner's agonized, post-Oprah speeches about lewd texts and photos were no substitute for possible absolution by Winfrey.)

For viewer Mamie Kwayie of Chicago, OWN's selling point is programs like "Oprah's Master Class."

"These shows work because they're infused with Ms. Winfrey's core platform for meaningful messages and impactful storytelling," she said in an email.

Such programs strike others as virtuous but dull, among them Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

"You have to admire Oprah for this, but it doesn't seem she's willing to put the kinds of shows on that the channel really needs," Thompson said. "What OWN needs is `Jersey Shore.' What OWN needs is `Real Housewives,' a splashy program that everyone watches and talks about, that may have questionable elements."

"It seems the kind of spectacular reality show that OWN needs is one that seems to be outside the definition of what OWN will accept," he said.

OWN can find a middle ground, countered Discovery spokesman David Leavy.

"There's a lot of white space between `Jersey Shore' and `Housewives.' Good programming doesn't need to be as salacious as that," he said, citing "Undercover Boss" as an example.

Let Oprah be Oprah, said one viewer, Charles W. Rawls III, a Winfrey admirer -- and a realist.

"I want programming that will share what she stands for. But that may not be what the masses want and advertisers are willing to pay for," said Rawls, a marketing manager in Philadelphia.

For a successful woman, one who thinks and lives big, Winfrey has entered new territory.

The overhaul announced this week, including the layoffs of 30 staffers intended to reduce redundancies between Discovery and its partner in OWN, Winfrey's Harpo Inc., brought Neal Kirsch, chief financial officer of Discovery's U.S. networks, to OWN as chief operating officer and CFO.

(OWN launched with a 150-person staff double that of the typical cable channel, another invitation to trim.)

In January, Discovery Fit & Health executive Rita Mullen was brought in on an interim basis to work on programming and development after the departure of Lisa Erspamer from OWN.

Their work is cut out for them.

Discovery's annual report filed in February said there will be "significant additional funding to OWN" that will exceed its earnings over the next two years. That will mean adding to the $312 million Discovery has given the venture so far, the report said. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told analysts he expects the channel to become a "significant asset," and cited growth in revenue streams, including advertising.

Discovery owns 50 percent of OWN but Winfrey holds operational rights when it comes to programming, marketing and decision-making authority for key management positions, according to Discovery's filing. Beginning in 2016, she can require Discovery to "purchase all or part of (her) interest in OWN," it said.

"Ultimately, it's Oprah's network. A lot of the policy decisions are with her," said analyst Brad Adgate of media consultants Horizon Media Inc.

Winfrey's real contribution will come in front of the camera, not from behind a desk, suggested analyst Carroll.

"She is what viewers are asking for. If she's there, they're there. If she isn't, they're not," he said

Manner Of Death Listed As 'Accident'...Whitney Houston died from an accidental drowning in a hotel bathtub, but the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use" were contributing factors in her death, the Los Angeles County coroner said in an initial autopsy report released Thursday. Houston, 48, was "found submerged in bathtub filled with water" and "no trauma or foul play is suspected," the coroner said in a one-page release.

Her cocaine use appeared to have occurred "in the time period just immediately prior to her collapse in the bathtub at the hotel," Assistant Chief Coroner Craig Harvey told reporters. The 60% narrowing of her arteries "suggest a cardiac event complicated by the cocaine use" led to Houston's slipping underwater, Harvey said. "Something happened that caused her to go down and we know that when she slipped under the water she was still alive," he said. "We have evidence of drowning since there was water in the lungs."

 The toxicology tests found other drugs in her body, including marijuana, the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, the muscle relaxant Flexeril and the allergy medicine Benadryl, the report said. But these drugs "did not contribute to the death," it said.

The report released Thursday did not disclose the levels of each drug, but that information will be included in the final coroner report to be made public within two weeks, the coroner said. Houston's family, which had been informed of the findings before Thursday's release, issued a statement through a family spokeswoman.

"We are saddened to learn of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure," said Patricia Houston, the singer's sister-in-law and former manager. Houston died February 11 in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the day before the music industry gathered for the annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

 Authorities had said that police and fire officials were called to Houston's room at the Beverly Hilton after her unconscious body was found in the bathtub, just hours before she was to attend a pre-Grammy party at the hotel. Houston won six Grammys and sold 170 million albums, singles and videos over her career. In recent years, the singer's accomplishments were overtaken by her struggles with drug addiction.

Source.com

The University of Southern Mississippi revoked scholarships and dismissed five members of its pep band for taking part in a racially-insensitive chant directed at a Kansas State University player during last week's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in Pittsburgh.

In a statement, the university said the five had their pep band scholarships revoked, were removed from the band and will be required to complete a two-hour cultural sensitivity training course this week.

The names of the students were not released.

• MORE: Southern Miss band chants 'Where's your green card?'

"The students have been forthcoming, cooperative, contrite and sincerely remorseful," USM Vice President for Student Affairs Joe Paul said in a statement. "They acted rashly and inappropriately, and now see the gravity of their words and actions."

A university investigation determined that the five were ones chanting, 'Where's your green card," while KSU point guard Angel Rodriguez shot free throws late in USM's 70-64 loss to the Wildcats in a first-round game.

USM President Martha Saunders issued a public apology from the school to Rodriguez, a native of Puerto Rico who attended high school in Florida.

Interim athletic director Jeff Hammond went to the player's hotel after the game to apologize.

Paul said the entire university should learn from the incident.

"This is a teachable moment, not only for these students, but for our entire student body and those who work with them," Paul said in the statement.

Source:  usatoday.com

Police Col. Naradet Tiprak said driver Saksi Ketsikaew turned in 289 ounces of jewelry in cardboard boxes Friday.

He said gold seller Ekarat Kanokwannakorn bought the gold Tuesday in Bangkok but forgot it in the taxi while he was helping his sick wife.

Naradet said police were skeptical about the delay but that Ekarat was happy to get back the gold and didn't seek to press charges. The loss had been widely publicized.

Ekarat rewarded the driver with two necklaces together worth about $10,000.

Hugh Hefner's 21-year-old son has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge stemming from an incident with his girlfriend at their Pasadena home.

Assistant Pasadena City Prosecutor Chris Blankenhorn tells City News Service that Marston Hefner pleaded no contest Tuesday to corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant.

Marston Hefner was arrested last month after police were called to the apartment he shared with 20-year-old Claire Sinclair, the 2011 Playmate of the Year. Sinclair had minor injuries and sought a restraining order against the younger Hefner the next day.

Blankenhorn says Marston Hefner is expected to undergo a year of domestic violence counseling. He also is ordered to stay away from Sinclair for three years.

Source:  ap

The U.S. Geological Survey set the intensity at 7.6 and said the epicenter was 11 miles underground. Mexico's National Seismological Survey said the temblor had an epicenter southwest of Ometepec.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard's Twitter account said the water system and other "strategic services" were not experiencing problems.

Source:  ap