Will Oprah Winfrey fade away?

Oprah Winfrey might just be on her way to becoming the new Howard Stern.

Not that the Queen of Daytime will suddenly develop a foul mouth and lose her sense of decorum. But I wouldn't be in the least surprised if Winfrey's career path follows Stern's.

Stern, you may recall, was the self-professed King of All Media. His hugely popular, nationally syndicated radio show made him a household name even in parts of the country where it didn't air. Like Utah.

His battles with, and fines from, the FCC only made him more well known, more popular and richer.

In January 2006, Stern left broadcast radio and moved his show to Sirius XM. He's being paid enormous amounts of money, so Stern isn't hurting. But his audience has dropped dramatically.

And, perhaps more importantly, when was the last time he made news? Stern has pretty much disappeared off the pop-culture radar.

Like Stern, Winfrey sure isn't hurting for money. Like Stern, she's leaving broadcast behind. She'll retire from her syndicated talk show in 2011 to launch OWN — the Oprah Winfrey Network on cable — in partnership with Discovery.

Speculation is that Winfrey will also move some version of her talk show to OWN as well. And it will draw far fewer viewers than the broadcast version.

OWN will debut about eight months before "Oprah" ends. But it might have been smarter to launch the network and keep the current "Oprah Winfrey Show" going for another couple of years. And use the show to promote OWN.

Before Oprah becomes Howard.

UNCANCELED? NBC, which had previously announced that "Trauma" would complete its 13-episode run and then disappear, has had a small change of heart.

The network has ordered more episodes. But only three more. Not the usual nine, which would fill out a full 22-episode season.

So now "Trauma" is only sort of canceled, apparently.

"CHUCK" GETS DATE: NBC has announced that "Chuck" is returning in January. After airing back-to-back episodes on Sunday, Jan. 10 (7 and 8 p.m.), it will return to Mondays at 7 p.m. on Jan. 11.

That move pushes "Heroes" back to 8 p.m. and pushes "Trauma" off the schedule.

Don't look at me. I don't know what they're thinking.

"LOST" IS FOUND: ABC is bringing "Lost" back for the final time in February — and putting it on a new night.

On Tuesday, Feb. 2, we'll get a recap episode at 7 p.m., followed by two original episodes at 8 and 9 p.m.

A week later, the show begins airing weekly episodes Tuesdays at 8 p.m.

For those of you keeping track, "Lost" spent its first three seasons on Wednesdays and the past two seasons on Thursdays.

e-mail: pierce@desnews.com