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It’s the end of an era, as one of the most powerful women on the planet (Forbes noted Winfrey’s net worth at $2.7 billion) Oprah pulls the plug on her talk show — and plans to launch another – on her own channel.
“The Oprah Winfrey Show,” an iconic broadcast that grew from a local Chicago talk show into the foundation of a multibillion dollar media empire, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, Winfrey’s production company said Thursday night.
Winfrey, who became one of the most powerful women in entertainment from a seat on the couch of her set in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast on Friday, Harpo Productions Inc. said.
Winfrey 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 expected to debut in 2011. OWN is to replace the Discovery Health Channel and will debut in some 70 million homes.
CBS distributes The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the execs there probably have their hankies out right about now, as the show was sold in 200 markets — kiss all those licensing fees goodbye.
6 Comments
A pretty incredible storyHaving grown up and lived most of my adult life in Chicago, I remember when Oprah was the hostess of the morning program on Channel 7 (ABC), “AM Chicago.” This was in the 1980′s. It was the typical cookie cutter “AM Local Show” that was seen in markets around the country on ABC stations immediately following Good Morning America. In the Windy City, it aired from 9 – 10 a.m.
Oprah was much rounder and far less glamorous in those days. And the guests were far less interesting, if they were interesting at all. But Oprah had class.
It didn’t hit me how far she had come until a vacation trip to Canada in 1999. We were in a small boutique in Quebec City. I mentioned we were from Chicago. Her eyes lit up an she asked “Connaissez-Vous Oprah?” (Do you know Oprah?).
We chuckled about it, but later on we were able to watch Oprah subtitled in French.
I will miss Discovery Healthbut I’ll see what OWN is before judging.
I have a problem with The Secret stuff, but I do wear much better bras since catching that well-known episode.
I’ll take Discovery Health any day…but I wish her the best with her enterprise.
Say what you will about Oprah,but she has done a hell of a lot to advance visibility and acceptance of the LGBT community. Over 25 years she’s brought many LGBT issues into the homes of people all around the world who otherwise might never have had such exposure and opportunity to learn about us and our lives. And she usually did it in a very thoughtful way, without sensationalizing as many others have (ie: Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, etc.).
She has definitely been good for us overall.The majority of the women in my office had never in their lives thought about trans issues until Thomas Beattie was on the show. One of the part-timers caught it in the 4 pm slot and made sure the others taped it when it reran during the night. They spent the next day talking about what a nice normal family the Beatties are and that everyone should just leave them alone. More education in an hour for four women than anything other than working with a trans person could have done. She and Phil Donohue are the class acts of the talk shows.
I still disagree with The Secret stuff, though, and think a lot of the medical experts she has on are full of it.
“Palin Factor” kicked in!Now if we could get Sarah to visit Rush, her sweetie Glenn, then hop on over to see Boener, Bachmann, Miss Mitch and a few others…
Sigh- a girl can dream.