Tina Perry, President of Oprah’s OWN, on Why Unscripted TV Matters Now More Than Ever

During Tina Perry’s tw0-decade journey at Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network, she’s helped flesh out OWN’s diverse slate of films and TV series by upholding OWN’s mission to cater to “her,” OWN’s target audience: Black women.

In doing so, OWN has premiered scripted hits, including the Merle Dandridge-led church drama “Greenleaf” and Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar.” But the network has steadily been developing its reality-TV sector. After the successful life coaching series “Iyanla, Fix My Life,” starring inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant, ended in 2021, OWN took it up a notch with the hiring of reality-TV mega producer Carlos King, who signed a first-look deal with the channel that same year.

Today, OWN boasts a wide variety of reality docu-soaps, including King’s “Belle Collective,” the ever-viral “Family or Fiancé” hosted by Tracy McMillan, and its newest addition, “Somebody’s Son.”

“We’ve been able to really present a 360 look at what Black relationships are. Our programming, our viewers told us that’s a lean-in for her,” Perry said. “We saw multiple series have season-over-season ratings growth.

Perry notes that “Ready to Love” and “Belle Collective” each grew 8%, and “Love & Marriage: Detroit” grew by 4%.

“Our audience is not just watching our shows, they’re coming back,” she said. “They’re telling their friends, and I think there’s something they’re really connecting to when it comes to seeing themselves, representation and feeling that their lives and friends and family and loved ones are really portrayed in a genuine, entertaining and fun way.”

Perry tells TheWrap that reality TV has given OWN another outlet to cover the uniqueness of Black relationships through different formats.

Read on for Perry’s full Office With a View interview, edited for length and clarity.  

Over the years, OWN has grown to embrace reality shows, though many viewers have recognized it for its hit scripted series like “Queen Sugar” and “Greenleaf.” Talk to me about that shift, and what audiences are wanting from the network. 

One thing about the network is our brand promise has not changed over the last, I’d say, 10 years: “See Yourself.” We are constantly inviting our audience, our viewers, to come see themselves in all of our programming, with heart, humor, honesty, that has not changed, whether it’s scripted or unscripted. 

We’ve been telling [the audience base] that, and we do that for her. Our mission, as you may or may not know, you know, is we see ourselves as the premier destination for authentic programming and the entertaining exploration of Black relationships. That’s the foundation of everything we do at home and in the unscripted space, which has been wonderful, it has really allowed us, in a myriad of ways, to explore those Black relationships.

We did do it years ago with our core scripted series, but the reality space, and Carlos has been a big part of this – we’ve been able to continue to expand on exploring Black relationships and try formats and do documentary series follow-alongs. We’ve been able to really present a 360 look at what Black relationships are. Our programming, our viewers, told us that’s a lean-in for her. 

We want to remain relatable. We know at times, we definitely want to keep uplifting, but at the same time, we want to reflect real life.

Speaking of seeing yourself, when Warner Bros. and Discovery joined forces in 2022, it brought you in alignment with Warner Bros. Television Group Chair Channing Dungey. Between working with Oprah and Dungey, how does it feel to have worked with Black women at this level? 

It is absolutely a privilege to be able to be the president and lead OWN. It is a tremendous experience to get to work closely for Oprah and with her on a day-to-day basis at this network. And to have Channing, a chairperson, divisional lead be also a major leader for us, it’s just a phenomenal experience for me. Oprah and Channing both have such a depth of experience and knowledge. I just feel I have the best partners possible, the best people to guide me at times and help me make decisions and to manage any situation I’m in.

I have two of the best people possible to help me do it. It’s really a dream come true to get to work with two people – two people who happen to be women and Black women, who are just so experienced and talented, especially at a time in our industry where the whole industry is going through a transformation and through a lot of change, to have such senior women provide guidance, it’s the best thing possible for me at this moment.

I do want to touch on that. The Hollywood industry is seeing a lot of rollbacks on DEI practices/initiatives. What’s your take on what’s happening, and how is OWN navigating the current climate?

I talked a little earlier about “See Yourself.” We’ve had the opportunity to just really show our audience so much great representation of the community and the culture. I think one of our shows that’s done really well is “Ready to Love.” We’re in our 10th season, and we’re having great readings. It’s been the No. 1 cable program. That show in particular, when you look at the men and the women and as they’re searching for love, it’s one of the best reflections of, I think, our community, our audience, our viewer.

One of the things I love about that show is there’s such parity between the men and women they’re both picking. But also, as we cast, we think a lot about representation and about everybody, again, being able to see themselves. And time and time again, I get it in my DMs, I sometimes receive texts from friends from college, or if I meet a viewer on the street, I’m told just how much they love that show and like how relatable it is to them and just how personal it feels. so for us. 

It goes back to that brand promise of “See Yourself” and just being able to really represent our audience in the best way we can, and for them to feel authentic and feel like we’re presenting universal representations. We’ve been doing it for a long time now, and we’re going to keep doing it, and it’s a little bit of our secret sauce. 

We’ve had a tremendous 2024; we grew our prime premier ratings by 3% among women 25 to 54 in 2024, and we also grew 6% among African-American women 25 to 54. That kind of doesn’t happen a lot now in cable, and for our returning shows, we saw multiple series have season-over-season ratings growth.

Our audience is not just watching our shows, they’re coming back. They’re telling their friends, and I think there’s something they’re really connecting to when it comes to seeing themselves, representation and feeling that their lives and friends and family and loved ones are really portrayed in a genuine, entertaining and fun way.

You’re now the president of the company. How’d you line yourself up strategically, personally and professionally to get here?

I knew early on in my career I wanted to be in an operational role where I worked closely with creative and I also ran a business. So both sides I had a passion and a deep interest in but I’ll be honest, I didn’t see a lot of people that did it. People were either like, ran a P&L (profit and loss statement), ran a business or they were purely creative and just worked with content, and I really wanted the ability to do both.

So throughout my career, I was always scouring the trades and reading articles about people who kind of did those jobs, and I would find them every now and then, and I always just had that vision, and I was just blessed that the opportunity presented itself at OWN. I never thought or knew the opportunity could happen here. But I did know that ultimately in my career, I wanted to be able to run a business and work intimately with creative, but really drive the business too.

Best advice you’d give someone who wants to be in a position like you one day, leading a network or media company?

Never stop learning or investing in yourself, no matter how good you get at your job, how great your reviews are, how you’ve been rewarded for nailing projects or being promoted because you’ve done really well, you’ve got to continue to push yourself to learn. And whether it’s using resources at your company or finding books to read that will teach you about the industry and improve your skills, or taking classes. You’ve got to keep learning about the industry and honing your leadership skills to become an effective leader.

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