You've pegged it.
I haven't watched Oprah for about 8 years and that was the MO that made me switch her off.
But that once was more than enough, for me to figure out how she would treat the media whore Cindy. After all, Oprah can NOT allow Cindy to spew that hard lefty stuff on her show. Opraph appears to just LOVE to see people cry and cry herself. That's what she did when Nate was on the show, after surviving the Tsunami. She rang out every ounce of bathos she could and then some.