Oprah Winfrey: 'I Want Millions of People' to Watch OWN

Sept. 30, 2010 — -- Having made an indelible mark on broadcast television, Oprah Winfrey's ready to take over cable. And you'd better believe her coup will be big.

In a new interview with Fortune magazine, the media mogul reveals what led her to create OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which is slated to debut in at least 80 million homes come January.

"I'm so tired of the chairs," she told the magazine about the seats on the set of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." "For me, it's about getting out of the chairs and into the hearts of people's lives."

She added, "I want to expand Americans' views of other people in the world."

Though she says she's leaving the daytime talk show circuit in 2011, she's not ready to lay low.

"Playing small doesn't serve me," she said. "The truth is, I want millions of people. I'm not one of those people who says, 'Oh, if I change just one person's life ... Nope, not satisfied with just a few. I want millions of people!"

To reach those masses, she's assembling a star-studded slate at OWN. Besides Winfrey herself, a slew of celebrities and talk show staples have agreed to appear on the channel, from the A-list actress with a megawat smile (Julia Roberts) to the controversial comedian who can't be kept off the air (Rosie O'Donnell).

Below, take a look at the cast of characters Winfrey's assembled to front her cable television network:

TV is familiar turf for the comedian: her last solo talk show, "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," ran from 1996 to 2002 and won a slew of daytime Emmys. But her more recent stint on daytime television was marked by squabbles, not statues. Chairing the coffee table of "The View" from 2005 to 2007, O'Donnell sparked memorable on-air spats with Donald Trump and fellow "View" host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

But it sounds like O'Donnell's new venture will be sunnier: the statement she released with Winfrey promises a "fun, uplifting show with Ms. O'Donnell's playful and energetic style."

It's part of OWN's monthly "Documentary Film Club" which features 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."