Oprah Says OWN Will Not Pick Up WGN’s Canceled Series‘Underground’

Last week fans were shocked to learn that WGN America canceled its scripted series “Underground,” following its second season. Fans were hopeful that OWN would pick it up for a third season. But unfortunately, Oprah Winfrey says she can’t bring Underground to OWN. Speaking exclusively to Soraya N. McDonald, Culture Critic for “The Undefeated,” Oprah explained she “can’t afford” the show, which costs $5 million per episode. “I can’t afford Underground,” Winfrey said. “It cost twice as much to make as Queen Sugar. As a matter of fact, my dear friend John Legend called me personally and asked me about it, but we’d already been talking about how we could make it work, but it’s, like, $5 million an episode, so we can’t afford it. It’s not cheap, I think because it’s a period piece.” ”We really tried to make it work,” she says. “I wanted to make it work because I think it’s a good show. I wanted to be able to save that show, but it did not make good business sense for me.” Winfrey also went on to speak about the show’s low ratings, and highlighted the fact that just because it’s always trending on Twitter doesn’t necessarily correlate with higher ratings. "We really tried to make it work," she says. "I wanted to make it work because I think it's a good show. I wanted to be able to save that show, but it did not make good business sense for me."