'Oprah'? What's the beef? The show and its host are winning Texans' hearts despite cattlemen's lawsuit.

For legal reasons Oprah Winfrey can't discuss the $ 12 million
lawsuit filed against her by cattlemen that took her to Amarillo,
Texas, for an extended stay.
But listen carefully during a broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey
Show," which has been originating from a theater in Amarillo the
last few weeks, and you'll hear America's most-watched talk-show host
quietly waging another battle: a battle for the hearts of Texas.
Take the telephone interview Winfrey conducted a week ago with
Mary Kay LeTourneau, who was back in prison after violating the terms
of the suspended sentence she received for having sex with a
13-year-old boy.
Twenty minutes with LeTourneau is an opportunity just about any
interviewer would relish. But it's hard to think of anyone other than
Winfrey who could get her questions answered while preserving an
atmosphere of warmth and respect.
"Listen," Winfrey told LeTourneau before turning up the heat on
her, "I'm in Amarillo, so I don't stand in judgment of anybody."
The next day one of Winfrey's guests was Nicole Contos, a
well-to-do New Yorker whose father plunked down $ 125,000 for her
wedding. When the groom stood her up, it made the covers of the
city's tabloids. Contos made it crystal clear that she had gotten
over the chump months ago. Still Winfrey had a moral to impart, not
to her guest so much as her audience.
"The biggest lesson I ever learned," Winfrey said, "and this
comes from Maya Angelou: When people show you who they are the first
time, believe them. Don't let them tell you 29 more times."
Winfrey rolled her eyes for the camera.
"But - that's just my opinion."
The crowd roared its approval.
It's been like that pretty much every day on "Oprah in Texas,"
as the show is being called during its stay in Amarillo. The
Panhandle town of 165,000 was not Winfrey's lawyers' first choice -
they tried to get the trial moved to Dallas - but the star of the
show frequently assures her audience that the only aspect of her
Southern sojourn she's unhappy about is spending time in the
courtroom.
As an interviewer, Winfrey is unexceptional. She rushes ahead,
cutting people off, asking new questions before her old ones have
been answered.
Her insistence on keeping interviews tight and fast-paced is one
of the reasons she's in Texas. A beef spokesman who appeared on the
1996 "Oprah" show that sparked the food-defamation suit claimed his
comments were selectively edited after the show was taped.
Where Winfrey excels, rather, is in her asides - those tossed-off
comments she floats out to her audience in between questions. The
asides not only reinforce her bond with viewers, they supply the only
distinctive content on her program.
When Winfrey says, as she did last week, "We're just folks from
Amarillo," her aside is met with easy laughter. She may not be one
of them, but she is theirs.
In her autobiography Jenny Jones whines: "I'm not a former
actress, journalist or beauty queen. I understand my guests
because we come from the same world."
But the success of Oprah Winfrey suggests that people would
rather watch TV personalities who aren't from their world. They want
someone who can carry on amiably with celebrities and the other
special people of the world - like the society girl left at the altar
- and then, with a gentle beckon, will draw the audience in and give
them co-ownership of the show. Not for nothing is the "Oprah" set
designed like a giant living room, while other talk-show sets appear
as large interrogation chambers.
Big in Texas
Across Texas, interest in "The Oprah Winfrey Show" has soared
since it rolled into town Jan. 26. Amarillo does not receive
overnight Nielsen ratings, but in Dallas the scores show viewership
is up 45 percent for the Texas shows. Ratings are up 20 percent in
Houston and 6 percent in San Antonio. (In Kansas City, "Oprah's"
viewership is flat compared with the pre-Texas shows.)
The show received 215,000 ticket requests in the first 15 minutes
that the Amarillo hot line was open, and crowds of people gather
every afternoon outside the theater where the show is taped hoping
for standby tickets.
That's not to say the soaring popularity of the "Oprah" show
has translated into higher approval ratings for her side in the
cattlemen's lawsuit.
James Hunt, who is host of a morning-drive talk show on Amarillo
radio station KGNC, said support for the cattlemen's case was running
"about 50-50" and hadn't changed since Winfrey's arrival.
"But the intensity of the reaction to her has diminished because
it's like, 'Yeah, she's here,' " Hunt said.
"This is just my opinion, but a lot of people here feel they
don't have to take a side, that they can like Oprah and they can also
support the beef industry," said Kathy McLean of KAMR-TV, the
"Oprah" affiliate in Amarillo. "Our mayor said it - that's why
they have the courts."
Still, Winfrey's gender politics are unmistakable: While her men
do battle with the cattle breeders up at the courthouse, she works
the home front, trying to win the women of Texas to her side.
"Support for her among women is a little bit higher, and among
men it's a little bit lower," Hunt said, "but it's not like her
support among women is at 90 percent or anything."
With the February ratings sweep in full swing, Winfrey is
choosing big-name guests that appeal to her new home crowd - Garth
Brooks Feb. 9 and Hanson on Monday - to augment the usual celebrity
mix. Pop singer Celine Dion and TV and movie star David Schwimmer
will be guests Wednesday.
During her interview with Brooks, who is almost as famous for the
years he toiled in workmanlike obscurity, Winfrey asked, "Did you
ever think, why you - why you are where you are?"
"Arsenio Hall (once) said, 'I used to wonder why me, when there
were people more deserving or more talented,' " Brooks recalled.
"And then - this is a great quote - he said, 'God only gives you the
light for so long, so you just go with it. ' "
Fitting words for the citizens of Amarillo, providentially pulled
into big-time television's orbit by a lawsuit. The light of "Oprah"
will only be among them for so long.