Yeah, you read that right. TV mogul Oprah Winfrey is in the middle of an Internet scandal as folks try to figure out whether or not she cheated a handicapped comedian out of winning votes for a contest sponsored by her new “OWN” television network.
The contest offers one fan the chance to win their very own reality show on OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network) which is due to launch in January 2011. The contestants are to upload videos on her site and describe what their show would be about and why America should choose them over all of the other candidates.
Zach Anner, a White wheelchair-bound comedian with cerebral palsy who wants to host a travel show, had the lead with over 8 million votes Tuesday. Then out of the blue, a Black woman named Dr. Phyllis, who proposed a show about teachers and had over 6 million votes, received a slight boost in the number of votes she held by 300,000. And the first thing people thought about was “Hey! Oprah must have cheated!” which brings us to where we are now. Did she or didn’t she? The answer is unclear until her PR team gets to work (if they decide to respond to this nonsense, that is). But we don’t see why Oprah would have to (or want to) cheat in her own contest anyhow.
As of today, Jack Anner is still in the lead which makes us wonder what the big deal is about home girl getting 300,000 votes anyway. She’s definitely going to need way more than 300,000 extra votes to surpass 8 million, right?
