Oprah Announces Winners in TV Star Search Contest

July 9, 2010— -- Oprah Winfrey today announced the top online finalists in the search for a new star to host a program on Winfrey's new OWN television network.

The top vote getter was Jacqueline Wattimo of Waterton, Massachusetts, with 9,360,096 votes. In her video, which she recorded in the front seat of her car, she promised to bring stories of "positivity and light" to the program if she were selected.

Wattimo registered nearly a million votes more than her nearest competitor, Dr. Phyllis Tucker-Wicks, a Tampa schoolteacher who calls herself "Dr. Phyllis" and once dreamed of becoming a Hollywood actress but found "drama" in the classroom instead.

Originally, only the contestants getting the five highest vote totals were supposed to go to Hollywood to compete in "Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star." But in a press release, OWN said it had decided to include the next three vote getters in the competition as well.

That group includes Zach Anner, 25, who has cerebal palsy.

The voting had been under a cloud of controversy for a time, after Internet rumors circulated that the network fixed the votes in order to dim Anner's chances of winning.

The network denied the allegations, and today said, "The results were carefully verified by a third party before the winners of the online competition were announced."

Anner himself dismissed any suggestions of impropriety by Winfrey.

"This is Oprah -- she helps people for a living," Anner told ABCNews.com. "To think people are saying she's rigged the voting against me doesn't compute for me. It's not what I believe."

In his video, Anner said he has "the sexiest of the palsies" and pitched a travel show for "people who never thought they could." At one time, he held a commanding lead in the vote.