Oprah Winfrey announced Friday that her television show, the foundation of a multibillion-dollar media empire, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons.
With tears in her eyes, and her voice occasionally breaking, the queen of daytime television announced her abdication. During a live airing of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,†today, Winfrey announced her plans to end the talk show Sept. 9, 2011.
“After much prayer and months of careful thought, I’ve decided the next season, season 25, will be the last season of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ ” she said. “I wanted you to hear this directly from me … you have enriched my life beyond all measurement.
Answering the question that is perhaps on the minds of her millions of fans, Winfrey said, “Why walk away? Here is the real reason. I love this show, this show has been my life, and I love it enough to know when to say goodbye.â€
Though she offered no specifics about her future plans, Winfrey, 55, is expected to start a new talk show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a delayed joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc. in 2011, according to the Associated Press. OWN will replace the Discovery Health Channel and will debut in some 80 million homes.
“The Oprah Winfrey Show†is broadcast live from Chicago at 10 a.m. (EST), and airs throughout the U.S. at various times. It is broadcast in 145 countries around the world and seen by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the U.S., according to Harpo Productions Inc. (No. 14 on the BE Industrial/Service list ), which produces the show. The company was the BE 100s Company of the Year in 2008.
“There is no bigger brand in media than Oprah Winfrey. She has changed the broadcast landscape and how people consume television,†said David Zaslav, Discovery Communications president and CEO, in a
statement.In 2008, Winfrey said that her intention for OWN “is for it to live beyond me — for it to be a living network of possibilities for people in their own lives … To be able to say that my life was used in service to help people come to their highest potential, I would do it even if my name wasn’t attached to it.”
Winfrey began her broadcasting career at WVOL radio in Nashville, Tennessee, while still in high school. In 1984, she was offered the opportunity to revive a fledgling morning show called A.M. Chicago at ABC affiliate WLS-TV in Chicago. However, she told Tim Bennett, the station’s anxious promotions manager (who would become Harpo’s president years later), that she would not be involved in any promotions, particularly because she believed the promotional campaign in Baltimore created a misleading expectation of her performance there. “For me, the most important thing has been to get the
lesson,” Oprah explained in a 2008 interview with BE’s Sonia Alleyne. “That is the mantra for my life. Get the lesson and then you can move on.” Her strategy: speak at local events to increase her visibility and spread the word about the Windy City’s latest talk show phenom.It worked. Within six weeks of her debut, she was beating the award-winning king of daytime talk shows, Phil Donahue, in his own city.
With her seeming golden touch, Winfrey, who’s net worth is valued at $2.7 billion by Forbes, has launched the careers of Drs. Oz and Phil, who both appeared as experts on her show and now are hosts of their own programs. She has even dipped her toe into politics, Winfrey endorsing and campaigning for Sen. Barack Obama in his successful bid for president.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM “THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW”
1988: Oprah drags a trolley of meat on stage to illustrate the amount of weight she has lost. She later regrets the move, calling it her “biggest, fattest” mistake, according the AP.
1996: Oprah’s Book Club is launched.
2004: “You get a car! You get a car!†Oprah surprises nearly 300 audience members with a brand new Pontiac.
2005: Oprah Winfrey lauds author James Frey’s autobiography “Million Little Pieces.†When she later finds out that it was a work of fiction, she excoriates the writer on her show.
2005: Tom Cruise proclaims his love for Katie Holmes by enthusiastically jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch.
2006: On-air comments about mad cow disease lead a group of cattlemen, who accuse her of maligning the beef industry, to sue her for $10 million. She wins the lawsuit.
2009: Interviews former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin about the campaign and her new book, “Going Rogue.”
Source: BE research, Associated Press
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