The network, which is jointly owned by Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications Inc., said Friday that Peter Liguori, Discovery's chief operating officer, is replacing Ms. Norman as CEO on an interim basis, effective immediately. Mr. Liguori will continue to serve as chief operating officer at Discovery while heading OWN.
In the middle of last week, OWN board members decided to replace Ms. Norman because they felt the channel needed new leadership to better establish itself, especially as Ms. Winfrey begins to turn her full attention to the network later this month as her syndicated show ends, people familiar with the matter said.
"We have learned a lot in four months, but now is the time to learn where the network is going to go," Mr. Liguori said in an interview Friday. "There's a need for a fresh perspective, which allows everyone to do their best work."
Ms. Norman, a former president at MTV, didn't return calls for comment.
The management shake- up at OWN comes after months of mediocre ratings and lagging viewership at the channel. Although the network had a strong debut when it launched on Jan. 1, drawing more than one million viewers for its first prime-time shows, it has struggled to hold onto that audience in the months since. In the following months, its audience even fell below the audience for the little-watched Discovery Health, the channel OWN replaced.
The network has had its fair share of management turmoil. The channel's original president and other programming executives left soon after Ms. Norman was named CEO. And last spring, several months ahead of launch, multiple programming and marketing executives left the channel as part of another shake-up.
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