5 Ways Oprah May Have Told Gayle that Oprah Was Cancelling Gayle’s Show on OWN

The Set

Lost in all the press coverage of CBS's new morning show, co-hosted by Gayle King and Charlie Rose, is an astonishing fact: King is free to do it because "The Gayle King Show," her talk show on OWN, is canceled.

Let me repeat that, in case the gravity of it escaped you: Oprah Winfrey, for whom OWN is named, canceled a talk show starring Gayle King, her best friend.

It's unfortunate that audiences couldn't embrace King's show, and even more unfortunate that her dearest friend, Winfrey, had to be the one to make the tough business decision not to keep it on the air. On the other hand, there is probably no one alive who's better at cushioning the blow of bad news than Oprah "Remember Your Spirit" Winfrey. I wasn't in the meeting when Winfrey had to break it to King that her show had tanked, but I have a good imagination, and I like to think Winfrey started the conversation with one of these great openers.

1. "You know how you've been wishing you had more time to volunteer on Barack's re-election campaign?"

2. "I think you might be wearing the wrong bra size, but it's okay: I figured out a way to make sure no one will see."

3. "It was so nice of you to help me out by doing a show on OWN, but I couldn't possibly impose on you any longer."

4. "'30 Rock' wanted to know if I could convince you to do a cameo, so I cleared some space on your calendar."

5. "I'm going to give you three minutes in my Louboutin closet, and you can keep WHATEVER you can carry out of there."