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Oprah Winfrey and Apple TV+ are ending their multiyear content deal, which was announced in 2018, sources confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sources said Winfrey and Apple TV+ will continue to work together but on a project-by-project basis.
The news comes a couple days after the debut of the documentary Sidney, a collaboration between Winfrey and Apple TV+ focusing on the life of Sidney Poitier. Reginald Hudlin directed the doc, which debuted Friday on the streaming service.
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Additionally, the pair will continue their collaboration on Oprah’s Book Club, which is available on Apple Books as well as OprahDaily.com.
However, two of Winfrey’s most recent high-profile programs — her exclusive interviews with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and with Adele — aired on CBS.
When the deal was signed in 2018, sources told THR that the pact encompassed film, TV, applications, books and other content that could easily be distributed on Apple’s all-encompassing platform. The deal also was nonexclusive, allowing Winfrey to continue as chief of Discovery Communications-backed cable network OWN.
Winfrey was said to have landed at Apple in a competitive situation, with other tech giants, likely including Netflix and Amazon, also pursuing a deal with her.
Sources told THR that Apple aggressively pursued Winfrey as part of a larger push to reach a broad audience. At the time, Apple was looking to make it clear to Hollywood that they were serious about their efforts in the content business and looking for marquee talent to partner with.
Apple has since won two consecutive best comedy series Emmys (for Ted Lasso) and has more than solidified its intentions with the industry.
As for Winfrey’s deal with Apple, it also has yielded the documentary series The Me You Can’t See, a partnership with Prince Harry focusing on mental health, as well as The Oprah Conversation, a series of discussions with newsmakers.
However, she also was supposed to collaborate with the streamer on On the Record, a documentary that centered on a former music executive who accused Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct. But 15 days before the film was scheduled to make its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Winfrey caused a stir when she abruptly dropped the documentary with little explanation, blindsiding filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering. The doc was intended to provide a launchpad for docuseries titled Toxic Workplace that would have examined a broad swath of sexual misconduct at work, but in the wake of Winfrey’s departure from On the Record, Apple pulled the plug on that series.
Puck News was the first to report that Winfrey and Apple TV+ were ending their deal.
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