Reality Rumors

The U.S. reality show “Oprah’s Big Give” will not be returning to ABC, the network’s president of entertainment said Tuesday.

As he unveiled ABC’s upcoming slate of programming in New York, Stephen McPherson said Winfrey’s Chicago-based Harpo production company has decided not to do another season of “Oprah’s Big Give.”

“It wasn’t something Oprah wanted to do,” the Chicago Tribune quoted McPherson as saying.

Stephen Paletta was revealed to be Oprah’s Big Give’s winner .

The 43-year-old real-estate developer from Bedford, NY claimed the show’s $1 million grand prize — $500,000 to keep for himself and $500,000 to use for additional gives to others.

“I’m in shock,” said Stephen after his victory. “It was such an incredible honor and privilege to be part of this show and to be chosen as the biggest giver with all of these wonderful people.”

Stephen defeated Cameron Johnson, a 22-year-old entrepreneur and dot-com millionaire from Roanoke, VA, and Brandi Milloy, a 23-year-old pageant queen from Chicago, IL, to take home the Oprah’s Big Give title.

“Cameron and Brandi made it so tough,” said Oprah’s Big Give judge Jamie Oliver after Stephen was named the winner. “We couldn’t just base it on this task alone — we had to dig back over the weeks. I know that regardless of this show, you’re going to go on and do such wonderful things in the future.”

Oprah’s Big Give gave a big ratings gift to ABC .

The Oprah Winfrey-produced reality competition series’ premiere averaged 15.6 million total viewers and a 5.3/12 rating/share in the Adults 18-49 demographics during its Sunday at 9PM ET/PT time period, according to Live Plus Same Day ratings data from Nielsen Media Research.

Oprah’s Big Give’s premiere numbers make it the third-most-watched series debut of the 2007-2008 television season, behind only Fox’s January 23 premiere of The Moment of Truth — which had the benefit of American Idol as its lead-in — and Fox’s January 7 premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which benefited from having the highly-rated NFC Conference Championship game as its lead-in.

Oprah’s Big Give’s premiere broadcast also won its regular Sunday night time slot, defeating its closest competition by almost 7% in total viewers (15.6 million vs. 8.7 million for Deal or No Deal on NBC) and by 36% among Adults 18-49 (5.3/12 rating/share vs. a 3.9/9 rating share for Family Guy and Unhitched on Fox).