Gayle King Jumps the Oprah Ship

In less than a years time, Gayle King has went from working with her best gal pal, Oprah, to anchoring a new early morning show on CBS starting January 2012. Maybe King didn't actually jump ship, but it does make one wonder how well OWN is working out for Oprah since her best bud is now working for the same network her show aired on before stepping away from her 25 year run.

There was no mention of King's leaving the Oprah Winfrey Network on Twitter today after the press release announcement. On the USA TODAY Life Twitter account, they tweeted: "Gayle King quits Oprah's OWN for CBS show". In there write up about King hosting a new show with Charlie Rose and Erica Hill, she will not continue her two talk shows; one on OWN and the other on Sirus Radio. Gayle will have the second hour of the show following Rose's lead in hour.

This doesn't surprise me that another one of Winfrey's friends makes it to daytime television without her. If you remember, Oprah launched Dr. Phi McGraw and Dr. Memet Oz's television careers from her own CBS talk show and Harpo Studios. While the two doctors appear on two different networks, McGraw's son, Jay, is the creator and executive producer of "The Doctors" on a third network. Phil also is listed as a producer of the show. However, Harpo nor Oprah has a hand in the production company that tapes the shows. Stage 29 Productions and CBS Television Distribution has taken on this area of the show.

Even with the King moving CBS in 2012, the new show the trio will be hosting has yet to be named.