Oprah’s daytime TV show to end in 2011 after 25 years

By Caryn Rousseau, Chicago

Saturday, November 21, 2009

OPRAH WINFREY yesterday announced that her daytime television show will end its run in 2011after 25 seasons on the air.

Holding back tears, Winfrey told her studio audience yesterday she would end her show in 2011, saying "prayer and careful thought" led her to her decision. The powerhouse show became the foundation for her multi-billion-dollar media empire, but in the last year, has seen its ratings slip 7%.

"Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and feels right in my spirit," she said.
Winfrey talked about being nervous when the programme began in 1986, and thanked audiences who had invited her into their homes over the past two decades.

"I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that would have led me to this moment," she said.

In Season 25, "we are going to knock your socks off," she said. "The countdown to the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show starts now."

Once a local Chicago morning programme, the production evolved into television’s top-rated talk show for more than two decades, airing in 145 countries worldwide and watched by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the US.

"Oprah Winfrey is in a category of her own," said Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University. "This is a great American story and like any great American story it’s supersized."

Winfrey, 55, is widely expected to start up a new talk show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a much-delayed joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc that is projected to debut in 2011. OWN is to replace the Discovery Health Channel and will debut in some 74 million homes.

Winfrey’s 24th season opened this year with a bang, as she drew more than 20,000 fans to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile for a block party with the Black Eyed Peas. She followed with a series of blockbuster interviews – Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, singer Whitney Houston and just this week, former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

As a newcomer, The Oprah Winfrey Show chipped away at talk-show king Phil Donahue’s dominance. Later, it turned to inspiration. The show’s coverage ranged from interviews with the world’s celebrities to an honest discussion about Winfrey’s weight struggles.

In 1986, pianist-showman Liberace gave his final TV interview to Winfrey, just six weeks before he died. In 1993 Michael Jackson revealed he suffered from a skin condition that produces depigmentation.

Tom Cruise declared his love for Katie Holmes on the programme in 2005 – and jumped on the couch to prove it.

In 2004, Winfrey unveiled her most famous giveaway, when nearly 300 members of the studio audience opened a gift box to find the keys to a new car inside. The stunt became a classic show moment as much for Winfrey’s reaction – "You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!" – as its $7 million (€4.7m) price tag.

The show also became a launching pad for Oprah’s Book Club, which then launched best-sellers.

Earlier this year, Forbes scored Winfrey’s net worth at $2.7 billion.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, November 21, 2009