Syndication Veteran Janet DeLorenzo Dies at 63

Janet DeLorenzo started her career in affiliate relations at 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.'
Janet DeLorenzo started her career in affiliate relations at 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.' (Image credit: Janet DeLorenzo)

Janet (Langner) DeLorenzo, a 30-plus-year veteran of day-and-date syndicated talk shows, passed away December 30. DeLorenzo, 63, was surrounded by family and friends upon her passing.

DeLorenzo began her career as an intern at the then-nascent Oprah Winfrey Show at ABC affiliate WLS Chicago. One of the first employees at the daytime show that would go on to become a worldwide phenomenon, she worked in several positions, each with increasing responsibility over her 21 years at Winfrey's Harpo Productions. She ultimately was promoted to the position of senior manager, affiliate relations at The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah concluded its 25-year run in May 2011.

Following her tenure at Harpo, DeLorenzo helped launch NBCU and Endemol’s Steve Harvey daytime show in September 2012, working out of Chicago as director, affiliate relations and promotion. She served in that role for five years. 

Following that, she was affiliate relations director for Scripps’s Pickler & Ben during the entirety of that show's two-season run. Most recently, she served as the director of affiliate marketing in a contract position at ABC’s The Tamron Hall Show.

There will be a memorial visitation for DeLorenzo on Friday, January 5, 2024, from 2 to 8 p.m. ET and on Saturday, January 6, 2024, from 10 a.m. to noon ET at Adolf Funeral Home in Berwyn, Illinois. 

DeLorenzo was preceded in death by her father George, and by Peter, the father of their two children, Jack and Chloe. She is survived by her mother Patricia and three siblings Pam, John and Tom. 

The family has launched a GoFundMe campaign in support of Jack and Chloe. 

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.