It was only a matter of time before Oprah Winfrey would haul her firepower from daytime television into the hours after sunset.
Her company, Harpo Productions, announced Friday that it is working on two prime-time reality shows for ABC, tentatively titled “Oprah Winfrey’s The Big Give” and “Your Money or Your Life.”
According to a joint release from Harpo and ABC, “The Big Give” hands money and other resources to 10 people and challenges them to help others in a way that tests the players’ ingenuity and passion. The winner will get to live out their “wildest” dream.
Winfrey employed a similar format to replace her annual “My Favorite Things” giveaway this year on her daytime talk show. She gave members of her studio audience $1,000 gift cards and implored them to find ways to help as many people as possible.
“Your Money or Your Life,” which is currently in development, features families who are confronted by a crisis and must change or risk being “consumed by disaster.” An “expert action team” will be dispatched each week to help the family overcome its crisis through a “total money and life makeover.”
Both programs, which have yet to announce an airdate, come three months after Harpo announced the formation of a new television development group for alternative shows, Tim Bennett, the company’s president, said in a statement. A Harpo spokeswoman said Winfrey planned to appear in at least one of the two new series, but her exact role had yet to be decided.
Winfrey’s previous dips into primetime television were through TV movie projects produced by Harpo Films, including “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” “Amy & Isabelle” and “The Wedding.”
