Oprah Winfrey will end her daytime talk show – as we’ve known it since 1986 – in 2011. The legion of fans would agree: 25 years is a good run.
Oprah Winfrey will wrap up The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011, a year marking both the end of her seven-year contract with King World and the show’s 25-year anniversary. Reportedly, the show won’t move on to the host’s Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), as rumored. It will simply end after more than two decades of being among the most popular and influential programs ever telecast.
At this point, even people who don’t watch The Oprah Winfrey Show sense it as something that’s always there, part of surroundings. The official decision to pull the plug came from Harpo Productions on November 19, and Oprah’s own comments about it were on the November 20 episode of the show.
“Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and feels right in my spirit,” she said. “I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that would have led me to this moment.”
The highlights of her show are too numerous to list. Topics have varied from investigative journalism to human interest to celebrity gossip. Certainly it was a massive viewer draw from the very beginning in 1986, trumping Phil Donahue, featuring an interview with Liberace six weeks before his death.
Through 25 years, the show hasn’t always been too serious; one episode featured Oprah wheeling out a wheelbarrow of fat, representing weight she lost. In another, she rewarded all the audience members with a new car. And, then there was the famous 2005 episode where guest Tom Cruise, in a royally good mood, jumped up and down on the studio’s couch in glee, screaming his love for Katie Holmes.
Oprah has had her show since the 1980s and began as a news anchor in the 1970s. That’s a lot of years of being seen by a lot of people. Her weight has fluctuated but she’s retained a youthful look. Despite this, she has dismissed rumors of plastic surgery, including rhinoplasty, a breast lift, liposuction and a chin implant. MakeMeHeal.com caught her comments.
“Why would I want that? It’s not true,” she said. “But, hey, I must be looking pretty good. I will be the first to tell you if I have plastic surgery.”
