Oprah Winfrey - O'donnell's Mid-air Scare Ahead Of Winfrey Show

The actress will present a daily hour-long show on the TV titan's new cable channel, and has an apartment in Chicago - where Winfrey filmed her own TV show for 25 years - while she fronts the series.

But O'Donnell received a scare as she made her way into the city to start work on the show - a control tower at the airport she flew into caught fire, leaving her plane to circle in the sky for two hours without radio contact.

In a video on the Own network website, she explains, "There was a fire in the control tower. We had to circle for two hours with no contact. I thought that would be really weird to be killed on my way to my first day."