It really was a match made in heaven: Oprah Winfrey, whose ego was so large that she thought the world would flock to her “Oprah Winfrey Network” to watch her to an interview, and Lance Armstrong, who felt it was somehow necessary to gut himself on a national forum to being to rebuild his image.

The two deserved each other.

Winfrey’s struggling network needed something—anything-for ratings. Armstrong needed an outlet where he hoped he could get back into the national limelight and begin to repair his image.

It was entertainment at is finest. And it paid off for Oprah’s Network, which reportedly had 4.3 million viewers—by far its highest ever.

Maybe one person on Twitter captured the moment best: PR prank account Death Star PR: “BREAKING: Lance Armstrong admits he took banned substances. EQUALLY SHOCKING: Darth Vader admits he’s Luke Skywalker’s father.”

First, it was Oprah hopelessly shilling her upcoming Armstrong interview to anyone who would listen. Her interview with CBS (below) showed her masterful PR skills as interviewers tossed one softball question at her after another.

She sat in her Harpo studio (right, with her logos prominently behind her) and was interviewed for more than 12 minutes (an eternity on TV) and manged to reveal virtually no details whatsover about her upcoming interview with Armstrong to her gushing interviewers.

No one dared to ask her if she had agreed to pay Armstrong or his LiveStrong foundation for the interview. She isn’t a journalist. She’s an entertainer and this was entertainment at its finest.

Oprah did repeatedly mention her network and how viewers can find it. She did announce that she had so much good information from Armstrong that she was now going to broadcast the interview on two successive nights. Her performance should be mandatory viewing in media training sessions.

Winfrey even had a countdown ticker on her OWN network until the big event was broadcast, and ran full-page ads in newspapers across the country telling people where they could tune in.

For his part, there was no logical reason for Armstrong to do the interview. His matter-of-fact answers left a bad taste in viewers’ mouths. But it did give him the media exposure he desperately needs.

The interview was pretty much over in a matter of minutes, but continued for more than an hour.

Oprah and Armstrong need exposure the same way other people need oxygen to breathe. And the public fell for it…again.