Oprah Winfrey announces plans to campaign in Charlotte in 2020 — for healthier living
No, Oprah Winfrey is not running for president.
But she still plans to spend time in 2020 campaigning hard: The 65-year-old former talk show queen and OWN network founder revealed Wednesday that she will beat the drum for “a stronger, healthier, more abundant” lifestyle during a winter arena tour that will stop in nine cities — including Charlotte on Saturday, Jan. 18.
The local edition of “Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus” will be held at uptown’s Spectrum Center and is being promoted as “a full-day wellness event.”
Although the press release doesn’t lay out a schedule, a few more specifics are available at ticketmaster.com: Doors open at 8 a.m., the event begins at 9 a.m., a box lunch (included with ticket purchase) will be served at noon, and the event concludes at 4:30 p.m.
According to the release, Winfrey will share “the personal ups and downs of her wellness journey” and help attendees “develop their own 2020 action plan through motivating conversations, the latest in wellness research and insightful interactive workbook exercises.” The release also promises a “lineup of high-profile guests” and says there will be “a signature Oprah interview as she sits down for an intimate one-on-one conversation with some of the biggest celebrities, headline-makers and game-changers.”
The high-profile guests have not been revealed.
In addition to Charlotte, Winfrey’s tour will pass through Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Jan. 4); St. Paul, Minn. (Jan. 11); Atlanta (Jan. 25); Brooklyn, N.Y. (Feb. 8); Dallas (Feb. 15); San Francisco (Feb. 22); Los Angeles (Feb. 29); and Denver (March 7).
The events are being presented by WW/Weight Watchers Reimagined, a company that Winfrey invested in four years ago. Formerly called Weight Watchers, it was rebranded in 2018 with Winfrey’s blessing. She owns an 8 percent stake in WW.
In fact, while tickets are set to go on sale to the general public starting at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 13, WW members will get first crack at admission — beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9. Pricing information has not yet been made available, but expect tickets to run in the same range as the ones she sold five years ago for her similar-ish eight-city “The Life You Want” tour, which commanded $99 to $999 per head.
“Your Life in Focus” will mark Winfrey’s first visit to Charlotte since she was here to deliver the commencement speech at Johnson C. Smith’s graduation in May 2016, when she told the crowd of 5,000: “Even if you flippin’ fries at McDonald’s, if you are excellent, everybody wants to be in your line. Whatever you do that is excellent, people notice you, and they talk about you, and they say, ‘Did you see that girl over there?’”
For more information about her upcoming tour, visit ww.com/oprah.
This story was originally published September 4, 2019 at 4:05 PM.