John Edward and Allison Dubois on Oprah

[Skeptic Guy]

I did a quick search and didn't find anything about this so I thought I would point it out.

They are on tomorrow, February 15th.

Thought it might be of interest.

 

[Minarvia]

Thanks! I know that I will try and catch it. I am not an Oprah watcher, so I don't know what time her show airs, but I'll find it. I just hope that I don't get too angry listening to John (first name synonomous with a toilet) McGee "Edward" and his smugness.

 

[Skeptic Guy]

I normally don't watch either. We all have a snow day today so my wife is watching (I still love her).

Oprah is on at 4PM.

 

[RSLancastr]

I wonder if she will ask them about Sylvia Browne and the Shawn Hornbeck case.

 

[Luke T.]

It's a shame to see Oprah using her considerable powers to promote evil. If either one of them has a book out and it gets a mention on the show, it will be at number one on the bestsellers list by Friday.

And RSL, it depends on when the show was recorded as to whether the Hornbeck thing was even known to them.

 

[MichelQC]

I am not, nor have I ever been, an Oprah fan. I know who she is of course (living on planet earth what choice do I have?) but anyway, I was wondering if anyone knows what is her usual MO with woos? Is she critical or does she just goes along with the nonsense?

Anyone knows?

 

[Phil]

I am not, nor have I ever been, an Oprah fan. I know who she is of course (living on planet earth what choice do I have?) but anyway, I was wondering if anyone knows what is her usual MO with woos? Is she critical or does she just goes along with the nonsense?

Anyone knows?

Don't know for sure, but I saw a preview for a recent show of hers on which she was to undergo an accupuncture treatment.

I'd guess she's not real big on science or skepticism.

 

[Luke T.]

Don't know for sure, but I saw a preview for a recent show of hers on which she was to undergo an accupuncture treatment.

I'd guess she's not real big on science or skepticism.

Damn shame.

One thing's for sure, though. Oprah doesn't tolerate BS once she has identified it. So if the theories about John Edward having microphones around his studio to pick up tips before his show are correct, he won't have that benefit with Oprah's audience. Also, he knows who at least 1/5 of his audience is at least two weeks ahead of time on his show because they have to reserve tickets.

You have to reserve tickets for most or all TV shows. When I went to David Letterman's show and The Daily Show, that was the case. Name and address. So it is probably the same with Oprah's show.

Hopefully, Oprah's staff would get kind of curious if JE asked for the audience list.

If JE is denied these advantages, I would be very surprised if he does any readings for Oprah's audience. If he does, it will be the lamest of cold reading.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Randi Has not had a good experience with Oprah's show in the past. See:

http://www.randi.org/hotline/1995/0017.html

Today I was called by the Oprah Winfrey Show and was made an offer to
appear. Again. No thanks. Once was enough. I was sandbagged by the
producer already, being told that no psychics would appear with me, going
all the way out to the location and then finding out, moments before the
show aired, that major "psychics" were appearing, and I had no data on hand to contradict their pompous and false claims. I'd prepared video and
newspaper material, but left it behind at the hotel when told I'd be without
opposition. It was a blatant, calculated lie, designed to trap me, and I
fell for it. But not again. I'm sure Oprah doesn't need me, and I have no
need of such unethical behavior. There are rules, even though Oprah doesn't seem to know them.

 

[Questioninggeller]

I did a quick search and didn't find anything about this so I thought I would point it out.

They are on tomorrow, February 15th.

Thought it might be of interest.

Just went to her website:

02/15/07 Do You Believe? (PG)

They say they talk to the dead... the rock-star of psychics John Edward. And, the real life pyschic behind the hit show Medium. How she sees through the eyes of a killer. See for yourself and then make up your mind.

http://www.oprah.com/tows/tows_landing.jhtml

So how can you make up your own mind, if you are only presented with one view? Where's the skeptic?

 

[Rodney]

Randi Has not had a good experience with Oprah's show in the past. See:

http://www.randi.org/hotline/1995/0017.html I'd prepared video and newspaper material, but left it behind at the hotel when told I'd be without opposition.

What does "without opposition" have to do with anything? Wouldn't the video and newspaper material debunking psychics still have been useful? If not, what did Randi talk about on Oprah's show?

 

[Luke T.]

Ah, same deal with tickets to her show that I thought.

Audience reservations for The Oprah Winfrey Show are available almost exclusively by phone. Demand far exceeds supply, so you may receive a lot of busy phone signals before getting through to one of our Audience Department members. Periodically, you may be able to request last minute reservations via e-mail. Check below for availability.

Should I bring my ID to the studio?
Yes, you must have a valid photo ID to enter the studio.

So they know ahead of time your name and address. Just like JE's show.

How many seats can I reserve?
You may reserve up to four seats for any one taping. Group tickets are not available.

Just like JE's show. I think you could reserve 5 seats on his, though. Which is why I say it is possible for him to know the names and addresses of at least 20 percent of the audience weeks ahead of time. After that, Lexis-Nexis makes it all downhill from there.

It may be even worse than that.

If you want to change more than one name on your reservation, you must call prior to the date of taping and speak with a member of the Audience Department.

I never saw anything like that for JE's show, but I may have missed it. Sounds like they know the names of everyone in the audience ahead of time.

http://www.oprah.com/tows/program/tows_prog_getticks.jhtml

 

[dissonance]

I saw a preview of this earlier this week, and one of the shots was Oprah, saying something like 'are you still a skeptic?' to someone in the audience, with a tone to her voice like 'how can you not believe'?

I predict this show is going to be a mammoth disaster from a skeptical point of view.

 

[CFLarsen]

I predict this show is going to be a mammoth disaster from a skeptical point of view.

Oprah runs a pretty tight ship. She's not going to risk any bad press if she possibly can.

If the show was taped before the Hornbeck case broke, she obviously would have little reason to bring it up. If the show was taped after, it will look very much as if she is trying to ignore such blunder, if she doesn't bring it up. If she does bring it up, she will try the "Oh, but these psychics are different from Sylvia Browne" ruse.

 

[Juustin]

Even if Edward doesn't know any info on the audience ahead of time, I'm sure he'll still be able to find someone in the audience who had a father figure of some sort (not necessarily a father, per se) with a J somewhere in their name who died during a cold month.

 

[Juustin]

Also, one night my wife and I were flipping through TV in the early morning hours and a John Edward special was on. We decided to watch it, and laughed at how vague his questions were to the general audience; and even then, if he wasn't right, how easily he's make him self appear right to anyone who wanted to believe him. One of the best went like this:

JE: I'm seeing someone here who has a loved one who died as a result of a suicide bombing. It's very specific. I'm not sure where though. (no response). I'm definitely seeing a bomb. There was an explosion.

Audience Member: I think it's my uncle.

JE: Did he die in a suicide bombing?

AM: No. He drove a delivery truck, but he died when he hit a gas truck head on and it exploded.

JE: Did he have brown hair?

AM: Yes!

Of course I'm paraphrasing from memory, but it was such a stretch, from "definitely a suicide bomber" to a car accident. On the special he commented on how the audience was much larger than normal, this one was about 5000. He probably figured a suicide bomber was a safe bet.


Also noteworthy: My wife has always been sort of uninterested in the whole skeptic/psychic debate. I had shown her some of the articles on stopsylviabrowne.com, and now watching tv psychics make fools of themselves is one of our favorite things to do together. Last week me, her, and a couple of her friends had a little "Let's watch Sylvia hack and wheeze through an episode of Montel" party.

 

[fuelair]

I did a quick search and didn't find anything about this so I thought I would point it out.

They are on tomorrow, February 15th.

Thought it might be of interest.

WOW, John Dedward and Allison Dubious together in a threesome with Oprah. Wonder what kind of kids that match will produce.

 

[Miss Whiplash]

I can't speak of the Oprah of today, but Oprah past was very deep in the woo. During her shows in the late 80's and into the 90's there was a constant parade of psychics, trance channelers, homeopaths, haunted people, UFO abductees, and the like. Her reaction at the screening of Interview with the Vampire still makes me laugh. Running out of the film with her friends and having a prayer session in the lobby is not normal behavior at a vampire flick.

 

[Katana]

A few years back, I was an Oprah audience member. I had seen one of those ads saying, "Has such and such ever happened to you? If so, the Oprah Show would like to hear from you." Well, they were looking for people with a phobia.

Being severely arachnophobic, I gave it a try. Who knew I'd get through? So I took my brother with me to what ended up being the most ridiculous and bizarre experience.

The topic of the show ended up being an examination into the way past lives may be influencing us today. They had a guy on there who claimed to be able to "regress" people into their past lives through hypnosis to gain insight into fears/phobias of the present. He supposedly took some woman back to a life during which she almost drowned. Ah, ha! No wonder she now has a water phobia. There were others, but you get the idea. It was so painful to watch. Predictably, the audience just ate it up.

The really bizarre thing, though, was the audience members themselves. They were primarily women, which I expected, but their behavior was so strange. It was like they were all manic. In one moment, they would be jumping out of their seats and cackling wildly like what Oprah had just said was the funniest thing they had ever heard. Then, in the next moment, their faces would morph into a caricature of extreme sympathy as they hung on every world of the next maudlin tale that Oprah or a guest was telling. My brother and I felt like we were suddenly plopped into a movie.

Anyone remember the scene from Golden Child with Eddie Murphy where he is in the mansion with Sardo Numspa and he thinks he's in a dream? Well, it felt like that. It was just surreal.

As an aside: I just found the scene on youtube if anyone is intereted. The relevant part isn't until about 2 minutes into the clip.

 

[Skeptic Guy]

I don't watch Oprah either and I have never seen her with a psychic so I don't really know how skeptical she will be, but I am not hopeful.

I know that she took apart James Frey, the author of A Million Little Pieces, but I think the reason was mainly because he made her and her reading list look bad, not because of any altruistic defence of Truth.

And as has been pointed out, there is absolutely no indication that she plans to include anyone with the skeptical position. That doesn't bode well for a balanced presentation. Dubois has the show Medium to hawk and Edwards his books so I expect a big love-fest. I don't think his show is on TV anymore, is it?

I don't know for sure how far in advance she tapes these programs, but I don't think it's much in advance. Therefore, I have hope that the Hornbeck case will be a topic of discussion.

But then again, I'm not 100% correct. My Spirit Guide get's his signals crossed at times.

ETA: Based on the additions by Vampire and Katana, I predict Woo-mania today at 4PM! If I'm right, do I get the $1M?