Don't make Oprah mountain out of a molehill

PASADENA, Calif. — Far be it for me to offer advice to the guy in charge of the Discovery Channel — but I'm going to do just that.

When a TV critic asks you a question, don't dance around it. Don't obfuscate.

And, for heaven's sake, just be up front when you answer. Or you run the risk of making something minor into something major. Or, at least, making it into something somewhat less minor.

Discovery and the BBC co-produced the spectacular nature documentary series "Life," which debuted on Sunday and continues for nine more hours. American and British viewers are seeing the same show, but they aren't hearing the same show.

The British version is narrated by Sir Richard Attenborough; the American version is narrated by Oprah Winfrey.

Which, not surprisingly, led a TV critic (not yours truly) to question why Discovery made the change.

"We thought that Oprah has that iconic voice," said W. Clark Bunting, president and general manager of the Discovery Channel. "And after hearing a little bit of the read, we just simply said, 'We think this is the person who can really bring life to "Life." ' "

That sounds good. And Bunting is a nice man.

But, of course, it's not quite as simple as that. Winfrey is in business with Discovery — the Discovery Health channel is going to be rebranded as OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in January 2011.

(Winfrey and Discovery Networks will be 50-50 partners.)

And, gee, this isn't exactly the first time a big-name star has been attached to a project in order to try to improve ratings.

And yet Bunting couldn't quite bring himself to admit any of that, for reasons that are, well, difficult to fathom.

In response to a direct question — "How much of the decision was based solely on Oprah's name recognition?" — Bunting dodged:

"I think that, you know, part of the decision is really the quality and the timbre of her voice. The reading is amazing, and above and beyond that, Oprah was a huge fan of 'Planet Earth.' I think, if there was one super fan for 'Planet Earth' (which was from the same producers). This is something that she was very excited about, wanted to be part of, and we were just absolutely delighted and excited to have her as part of this project."

Which prompted a repetition of the original question, because Bunting didn't address it the first time around.

It was weird, and Bunting appeared clearly uncomfortable. As if he was hiding some sort of secret.

Gee, it really wasn't that big a deal. Again, the easy answer would have been — we have nothing against Attenborough, but we hope Oprah brings us higher ratings. And we already have a deal with her.

We would have understood. Viewers are smart enough to get it, too.

We would have moved on. It was a minor issue.

And, c'mon, you didn't really expect us to believe you when you said the only reason Winfrey replaced Attenborough "truly was her voice, her excitement and her commitment to being part of this series."

Did you?

e-mail: pierce@desnews.com