Why does Oprah Winfrey hate people with Cerebral Palsy?: The Zach Anner scandal continues ( videos)

Zach Anner in front of the Texas capital in Austin, TX

We've been following the story of Austin's Zach Anner for some time here at the Comedy Examiner's Office, but in case you're just joining us, here's the scoop: Oprah Winfrey's retiring from her show this August, and to celebrate her permanent vacation, the multi-millionaire is starting her very own network. Awhile back, Winfrey announced a contest wherein anyone could film an audition tape, send it in, and be in the running to land their very own show on her new network. Zach Anner-- an Austin-based standup comic with Cerebral Palsy-- quickly gained a stunning amount of video views and votes, but despite his best efforts, it seems that there's something shady afoot over at Oprah's homepage: votes and views are vanishing, and even though Anner's clearly the person with the most support, it now looks as though he might not win. What's up with that? More details to follow, my gentle Examiner readers...

A few months back, Oprah announced that she'd be retiring from her daytime talk show to instead focus her efforts on her very own network, and it was further announced that anyone could submit an audition tape for the chance to land a show on the Oprah Network. Comedian Zach Anner-- who's based out of Austin, TX-- quickly gained the support of the internet with his hilarious audition tape, and it was generally assumed at that time that Anner was a shoe-in to win the competition. Then things started to get a little weird.

First, video views and votes seemed to disappear from Anner's page over on Oprah's site. Here, check out this screencap from the page in question. The top portion of the picture show's Anner's page on Oprah's site, along with the page views and votes he'd registered by that particular time. Then, just minutes later, the page was altered to appear as it does in the bottom portion of the photo below:

Obviously, something's up. The internet's been behind Anner every step of the way, with Facebook fan pages, petitions, and email campaigns springing up in the wake of this very obvious chicanery. For the past few weeks, all was quiet from Oprah's camp (and Anner himself, for that matter). And now, after a month's worth of votes and video views, the contest has come to a close. Given everything that's happened thus far, should we really be surprised that even more shenanigans seem to be taking place?

The photo below shows a screencap from Oprah's site featuring all the heavy-hitters that entered her contest. Note that Zach Anner's little screenshot tells us that he's received over 9 million votes-- not to mention a whole slew of page views:

From looking at this screenshot, it seems obvious that Anner's taken the crown in this particular contest. The next highest-scoring contestant was "Dr. Phyllis", who some believe Oprah was positioning as the winner long before the contest even wrapped. There have been allegations that Dr. Phyllis has seen massive spikes in both her votes and page views throughout the contest, but now it's listed right there in black and white: Zach Anner has the most votes. Shouldn't that make Anner the clear winner? Well, not necessarily. If you click on the button at the top of the page this screencap was taken from, you'll be redirected here:

Huh. That looks suspiciously like the numbers are different than they were just moments ago. On the previous page-- which, in case you've already forgotten, is pictured in the photo above this one-- we saw that Anner had over 9 million votes and 1.3 million page views. Now, just a click away, we're seeing that he's got 3.4 million...votes? Page views? It's not clear on the page, but whatever that number is, it's not representing what's actually happened over the course of this month-long contest. Why is Anner suddenly in seventh place, and why is Dr. Phyllis still in second? What's really going on here?

Here's what the site says is going to happen next:

Presenting our five verified online winners, PLUS three more of your favorites! One of these five passionate and charismatic winners will become one of ten participants appearing on the Your OWN Show competition series on OWN! And because of your overwhelming response to the online auditions (over 143 million votes!), OWN has decided to select the next three vote getters to join the other finalists.

This would seem to indicate that, despite garnering over 9 million votes and 1.3 million page views, Zach Anner cannot win the contest. One of the "top five" winners will be selected, and the other three that are listed appear on the page because they're "three more of (our) favorites". So far, those that have been following Anner's progress throughout the contest are not amused (Comedy Examiner included) and answers are being demanded. It will be quite interesting to see how Oprah and her web people explain away this obvious disparity. In all likelihood, it's probably something as simple as Oprah hating people with Cerebral Palsy...but wouldn't we all like to think better of Oprah than that? Let's hear it, Oprah: how did Zach Anner not win this contest, and why will he not be receiving a show on your network despite earning the most votes? We're all ears.

For those of you that may have missed Zach awesome audition tape (and follow-up video), we've included them for you below. Anner seems to have a great sense of humor, natural screen presence, and some really sharp material. Were he in charge of a show on Oprah's network, you can bet your sweet, sweet ass that we'd be watching it here at the Comedy Examiner's Office (even if we might not watch anything else on that network). Here, check out what you're going to be missing on Oprah's network later this year:

But, wait, there's more:

OK, seriously now, Oprah: let's cut out all this malarkey and just give Zach Anner the show he so clearly deserves. What do you guys think? Are hijinks afoot, or will there be a rational explanation for all this? If Oprah's so hell-bent on getting Dr. Phyllis-- or whoever else-- their own show, why not free up an extra half-hour of airtime and give that over to Zach Anner? Sound off in the comments section below, folks: we wanna know what you think about all this!

As per usual, you can stay tuned for more shenanigans from the Comedy Examiner's Office in the near future, or you can really do the Comedy Examiner a solid by hitting the "Subscribe" button up top next to his ugly mug. You'll get all future Comedy Examiner articles-- including our twice-per-weekend box office reports-- delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, the moment they're published. Why, just look at all the fun you've been missing out on lately:

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