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Now that Oprah is gone from daytime television (pause: pouring a little of water out of our cup in her memory, wishing it was hard liquor, it’s been that kind of day… but we digress), everyone has been asking who is the “next Oprah?”

Anderson Cooper the next Oprah?

Today we saw Anderson Cooper’s new advertisements for his daytime talk show and we could not help but notice they had a very Oprah-centric message.

Anderson Cooper did not come out and say “I want people to live their best lives” and he even made a genuine effort to say he was not trying to be the next Oprah, however; his actions speak louder than his words.

While we were watching the promos for Anderson’s show, we discovered that Anderson is using the Oprah, people create the stories, we are all human, people just want and deserve “to be heard” model. It’s no surprise that Anderson’s show has a Oprah feel, especially since Anderson tapped Lisa Morin from The Oprah Winfrey Show to be one of his executive producers. In fact, we kind of expected an Oprah feel and enjoyed it.

We are not saying that Anderson is trying to copycat, we don’t doubt he wants to be his own man and that he is genuine when he says he’s not trying to be Oprah. However, we could not help but get the Oprah feeling after watching all three of Anderson’s daytime talk show promos.

 

Watch Anderson Cooper’s talk show promos here and decide for yourself:

Anderson Cooper says he’s not the “next Oprah,” while taking a page out of Oprah’s book

Anderson may say he does not want to be the “next Oprah,” but after seeing the promos we are pretty sure he has read a page out of her book. And from what we can tell it’s working.

At the end of the day what we loved about Oprah was her commitment to hearing, promoting and telling other people’s stories and making us feel like we can relate. What we love, absolutely love, about Anderson’s promos is that he tells us out the gate he is genuinely committed to the same thing. You can tell it’s not all about ego for Anderson, it’s about hearing, promoting and telling other people’s stories.

What Anderson has is the same characteristics that Oprah possessed, the ones that made her successful. Anderson, like Oprah, is passionate and dedicated to getting the story. You can also tell Anderson’s heart is in the right place, that he is willing to put it on his sleeve and give a part of himself in his new talk show.

It is almost impossible to watch Anderson’s promos and not feel a connected to him and intrigued by what he has to say. There is something about the way he presents himself that makes you want to hear more. He also makes it clear that his show is not about him, but about exploring other people’s stories to reveal universal truths.

That desire to hear and see more, to feel personally connected, to be intrigued, that commitment to using other people’s stories to discover universal truths is what drew people to Oprah and what will probably drive people to Anderson.

So is Anderson the next Oprah? We don’t know but we kind of hope so. We love how genuine and authentic Anderson is and we also love how committed he is to getting the story… oh and also to looking good (what! That man is incredibly attractive).

Do you think Anderson Cooper is the next Oprah? Do you think he is different from Oprah? Share your Anderson and Oprah thoughts in the comments below.