Oprah stretches Lance Armstrong interview from one night to two

PASADENA, Calif. — Hearing the media drumbeat grow louder and louder, Oprah Winfrey has decided to stretch her Lance Armstrong interview from one night to two.

So clear your calendar for Thursday at 9 p.m. (as originally announced) — and now also Friday at 9 — for “Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive” on OWN network.

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In Tuesday’s special-inflation announcement, OWN promised that the cyclist would address the “alleged doping scandal” that has plagued his career.

Armstrong is going to come clean to Oprah but not go into great detail about specific cases and events, according to USA Today. Two nights is a lot of time to fill to not go into detail about specific cases and events.

Over the years, Oprah has carved out a niche as the first Station of the Cross on the Road to Redemption for celebrities.

Most recently, David Letterman discussed his office affairs with Oprah — a.k.a. the Queen of the Confessional — to clean up his reputation as he was being honored by the Kennedy Center.

And in 2010, Jay Leno made his pilgrimage to Oprah before returning as host of “The Tonight Show” in March of that year. Leno sought absolution after being blamed for Conan O’Brien’s resignation from the iconic NBC late-night show. Leno admitted to Oprah that he’d “told a little white lie” when he announced on the air in 2004 that he would “retire” after Conan took over “Tonight” in ’09.

Armstrong’s sit-down with Oprah is the only interview that the seven-time Tour de France winner has given since he was stripped of his titles and dropped from endorsement deals worth millions of dollars. That happened last year after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released an extensive report accusing the cyclist of doping throughout his career.

Armstrong received a lifetime ban on competing professionally.

Oprah told the gang on BFF Gayle King’s show, “CBS This Morning,” that she added the second night because her interview with Armstrong went on for 2 ¹ / ₂ hours. The first night was scheduled for 90 minutes, she said Tuesday, which includes only 65 minutes of interview.

Oprah said the interview will run over two nights because “we felt that to leave over half of this on the cutting-room floor, after millions of people have been waiting for years for many of these answers, would not be the right thing to do.”

World beyond ‘Downton’

“Television doesn’t end with ‘Downton Abbey,’ ” Jeremy Irons told a ballroom full of surprised TV critics and chagrined PBS suits.

Dressed in his traditional Bronte Romantic-Lead Press Tour costume — rough cotton pants tucked into heavy black wandering-across-the-moors boots, etc. — Irons had come to plug his upcoming PBS program, “Shakespeare Uncovered,” in which he and other actors who have performed the Bard’s work discuss the roots of his plays.

The show debuts Jan. 25 and features Ethan Hawke explaining “Macbeth,” Joely Richardson tackling Shakespeare’s comedies — and Irons probes “Henry IV” and “Henry V.”

But what captured critics’ attention was his breezy candor about “Downton” — which, ever since PBS’s press-tour at-bat began the previous day, had been The Prettiest Girl At the Party.