HOW MUCH OPRAH
 CAN ONE QUEEN WATCH?! 

My Tivo is already on overlaod with "Housewives". OWN launches this weekend  and the whole line up looks pretty damn good.  How am I ever going to watch 3 more hours a week of TV?!

Oprah Winfrey's new network has announced the 10 contestants competing on "Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star ."

The would-be hosts include a travel guide who's in a wheelchair, a comedian who thinks the U.S. needs a gay best friend, and a businesswoman aiming to make a show about money both informative and fun.

The finalists were chosen from more than 9,500 online audition videos and thousands more hopefuls at open casting calls, the Oprah Winfrey Network announced Thursday. More than 143 million votes were submitted online, OWN said.

The winner will be selected on the show by judges including Dr. Phil McGraw and Gayle King, who will subject them to a range of TV-host-related challenges. The winner gets a show airing on Winfrey's cable channel.

With Nancy O'Dell and Carson Kressley hosting, "Your OWN Show" premieres Jan. 7. The Oprah Winfrey Network launches this Saturday.

Ryan O'Connor, of West Hollywood, Calif., who says he wants to be the country's gay best friend. "If a variety show and a traditional talk show had a baby, that'd be my show," he said.

His OWN Show: A Variety-style talk show. America, according to Ryan, needs a lot of things, but most importantly, "this country needs a gay best friend , and that's where I come in." Ryan has honed his comedic timing and entertainment skills through his one-man show that's currently touring the country, and he wants to incorporate elements of his show, along with some traditional talk show aspects, into a new show to fulfill what he says he was meant to do. "I want to do sketch comedy, musical acts and have a serious component," he says.


Don’t call Ryan O’Connor a standup comic. Sure, he’s funny, he stands onstage in front of a microphone and people laugh, but his show is more than that. The former actor and YOUTUBE talk-show character  player recently embarked on his first tour this past summer, (Ryan O'Connor Eats His Feelings ) complete with a rented Minivan. His current boyfriend is Mormon, three of his exes have gone off to marry women and he’s not above smuggling dogs into hotel rooms.

His is sometimes called a “big gay singing Kathy Griffin.”

"Kathy’s actually a friend of mine. I got her blessing to refer to myself as the big gay singing Kathy Griffin. I don’t think Kathy sees anyone as a threat any more. In the last couple of years she’s finally getting the acclaim she’s deserved forever.

I’m sure she loves the label — it gets her name out there more. It’s only fair, too, because I’ve been in her act before. She used to refer to me in her act as her Pink Hollywood Gay or something. That’s the double gay dream: Being friends with Kathy Griffin and being mentioned in her act. I was a huge fan before we became friends, so to have a story mentioned in her act was very surreal."


Find  Ryan on Facebook !   And watch some of his clips by clicking the links above!

GOOD LUCK  RYAN!  From  the staff at Best Gay News Magazine !