Lots of news about OWN: The OprahWinfrey Network these days…

First, the network announced today that Dr. Phil, Carson Kressley and Nancy O’Dell will help Oprah with Your OWN Show: Search for the Next TV Star, a competition reality show in search of the next daytime reality star. The show, produced by Mark Burnett and hosted by Kressley and O’Dell, will feature 10 contestants selected through online video submissions and in-person interviews…and the winner will get his or her own daytime talk show on OWN! Your OWN Show: Search for the Next TV Star will premiere in January 2011, and the network itself launches on 1.11.11. (How’s that for easy to remember?)

Oprah was also described by Jamie Kantrowitz in The Huffington Post today as “diversifying to do more of what she has built her incredible legacy on: to give a platform of inspiration and empowerment to the ordinary person that can live on in a new technological era.” Kantrowitz gives Oprah credit for using social platforms to reach new, younger audiences, while still cultivating her traditional fan following.  She predicts that OWN will be “the first TV network that truly marries traditional and social media to inspire and create citizen impact.”

You can connect with OWN on social media via Facebook and on Twitter at @OprahWinfreyNet, and stay tuned here for more news about OWN and its programming as the first of next year approaches.