Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions is developing a talk show featuring heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz for an expected fall-2009 launch. Winfrey and her team met with potential distributors last month in Chicago, following the same process Harpo used when launching The Oprah Winfrey Show spinoff Dr. Phil in 2002.
Oprah, Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray, Oprah's second spinoff, are all distributed by CBS Television Distribution, part of which was the old King World Productions that Winfrey first teamed with.
Winfrey's following the same script she did with Dr. Phil McGraw. Oz appears frequently on her daily talk show and last month, virtually hosted an episode of Oprah by himself, with Winfrey just posing questions from the audience. He also appears on the Oprah and Friends show on XM Satellite Radio.
