New Year, New Oprah: What's to Come on the Oprah Winfrey Network

Dec. 30, 2010 — -- Forget a new year. What 2011 is really bringing is a new age of Oprah.

Oprah Winfrey's original cable television channel, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, will debut in about 85 million homes across America Jan. 1, marking a major step in the media-mogul's career. (Oprah.com includes a "channel finder" to locate OWN in specific areas of the country.)

It won't be Winfrey 24/7. The talk show host with the most has committed to appearing in at least 70 hours of programming in 2011, but the rest of OWN's programming will consist of a cast of characters who share her values and vision. Below, check out the star-studded shows OWN has in store:

O'Donnell won't dabble in the typical celebrity interviews. "The show will be about real people and real issues," she said on Oprah.com. "I'll focus on a single topic for one hour, things people deal with every day. Raising children. The education system in America. Autism. Relationships, health, weight, depression—and happy stuff, too, of course. I envision the show being full of love and laughter."

Catching Julia Roberts in action normally involves $7.50 and a bucket of popcorn. But Winfrey convinced the "Eat, Pray, Love" star to take her act to the small screen. Roberts will host and be executive producer of "Extraordinary Moms," a documentary film dedicated to mothers struggling to better their families, for OWN. The network's monthly "Documentary Film Club" will feature a host of celebrity-produced projects. Mariel Hemingway looks at the legacy of suicide in her own family in "Seven Suicides," Gabriel Byrne explores homelessness in Nashville with "Tent City," Goldie Hawn investigates positive psychology in "Searching for Happiness," and Forest Whitaker goes inside a Lousiana prison's hospice wing in "One Last Shot."