Oprah Announces Winners in TV Star Search Contest

July 9, 2010— -- Oprah Winfrey today announced the top online finalists in the search for a new star to host a program on Winfrey's new OWN television network.

The top vote getter was Jacqueline Wattimo of Waterton, Massachusetts, with 9,360,096 votes. In her video, which she recorded in the front seat of her car, she promised to bring stories of "positivity and light" to the program if she were selected.

Wattimo registered nearly a million votes more than her nearest competitor, Dr. Phyllis Tucker-Wicks, a Tampa schoolteacher who calls herself "Dr. Phyllis" and once dreamed of becoming a Hollywood actress but found "drama" in the classroom instead.

Originally, only the contestants getting the five highest vote totals were supposed to go to Hollywood to compete in "Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star." But in a press release, OWN said it had decided to include the next three vote getters in the competition as well.

That group includes Zach Anner, 25, who has cerebal palsy.

The voting had been under a cloud of controversy for a time, after Internet rumors circulated that the network fixed the votes in order to dim Anner's chances of winning.

The network denied the allegations, and today said, "The results were carefully verified by a third party before the winners of the online competition were announced."

Anner himself dismissed any suggestions of impropriety by Winfrey.

"This is Oprah -- she helps people for a living," Anner told ABCNews.com. "To think people are saying she's rigged the voting against me doesn't compute for me. It's not what I believe."

In his video, Anner said he has "the sexiest of the palsies" and pitched a travel show for "people who never thought they could." At one time, he held a commanding lead in the vote.

Millions of Votes Cast; 7 Winners Announced

OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, invited people to vote online to determine who deserved their own show. Over 143 million votes were cast by people judging videos submitted by 6,100 contestants who attended open casting calls in New Jersey, Texas, California, and Georgia.

Anner said the entire process has been a surprise for him.

"It's just absolutely nuts," he said. "I would have to be delusional to expect this. I expected my mom and her friends to watch it. That would have been good enough. I wasn't expecting millions of votes and people quoting me all over the place. It's a dream-come-true kind of thing. I'm extremely grateful."

Winfrey's "Your OWN Show" contest is actually a chance to win a spot on a reality show, produced by "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett -- on which contestants vie to win their own reality shows. The top vote getters for the video submissions will be flown to Hollywood to meet with producers, and at least one will be chosen for their own reality series. Other cast members to round out the group of ten will come from the in-person casting calls and the online submissions chosen by producers.

Among all the submissions, Anner's video seemed to touch a nerve with voters.

One person posted a tribute video to Anner on YouTube in response to his video. And singer John Mayer -- "he is one sexy fellow," Anner said -- posted a video on his website in which he promised to write the theme song to Anner's show. "I want to see this show," the singer said, "I want to see Zach."

"I think people are responding to the message because it's pretty universal," Anner said. "I'm not saying 'I have cerebral palsy, pay attention to me.' We all have problems and we have to figure out how to live our best life."