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 CHICAGO
(AP) _ Oprah Winfrey announced Friday that her powerhouse daytime television
show, the foundation of a multibillion-dollar media empire with legions of
fans, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air.
Holding
back tears, the 55-year-old Winfrey told the audience at the end of a live
broadcast of ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' that ``prayer and careful thought'' led
to her decision.
Winfrey
said she loved the show, that it had been her life and that she knew when it
was time to say goodbye. ``Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and feels
right in my spirit,'' she said.
Winfrey
talked about being nervous when the program 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.
Once
a local Chicago morning program, the production evolved into U.S. 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 U.S.
alone.
``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.''
A
spokeswoman for Winfrey's company, Harpo Productions Inc., declined to comment
Thursday on Winfrey's plans except to say that ``The Oprah Winfrey Show,''
which has seen ratings slip 7 percent from a year ago, will not move to cable
television.
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. An OWN spokeswoman declined comment
Thursday.
Winfrey
said she and her staff were going to brainstorm ideas for the final season of
``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' and that she hoped viewers would take ``this
18-month ride with me.''
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.''
CBS
Television Distribution, which distributes ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' to more
than 200 U.S. markets, held out hope it could continue doing business with
Winfrey, perhaps producing a new show out of its studios in Los Angeles.
``We
know that anything she turns her hand to will be a great success,'' the CBS
Corp. unit said in a statement. ``We look forward to working with her for the
next several years, and hopefully afterwards as well.''
Many
fans heading into Harpo Studios on Friday morning seemed to support Winfrey's
decision to end the show.
Said
Sandra Donaldson, 59, of Indianapolis: ``It's time to elevate to something new.
Whatever she does is going to be a blessing. It's going to be rewarding and
eye-opening. Her name alone opens doors.''
Winfrey's
24th season opened this year with a bang, as she drew more than 20,000 fans to
downtown Chicago 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 Republican vice
presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Her
show's coverage has 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 a 1993 prime-time special, Michael Jackson revealed he
suffered from a skin condition that produces depigmentation. Tom Cruise
enthusiastically declared his affection for the much-younger Katie Holmes on
the program in 2005 _ and jumped on the studio's 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
price tag.
The
show also became a launching pad for Oprah's Book Club, which then launched
best-sellers. The titles ranged from ``Song of Solomon'' and ``Paradise'' by
African-American writer Toni Morrison to Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel's
``Night.''
For
others, the selection backfired. ``A Million Little Pieces'' exploded in sales
after Winfrey chose the James Frey memoir in fall 2005. Soon after, it was
revealed as a fabricated tale of addiction and recovery, and Winfrey later
chewed out Frey on her show.
``I
call her `Queen of the New Consciousness' because she did so many things to
change lives, the books that she promoted,'' said hip-hop mogul Russell
Simmons.
The
loss of ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' would be a blow to CBS Corp., which earns a
percentage of hefty licensing fees from TV stations that use it _ largely ABC
network affiliates. CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves told analysts two weeks
ago that any negative impact won't hit the company until 2012.
Winfrey
started her broadcasting career in Nashville, Tennessee, and Baltimore,
Maryland, before relocating to Chicago in 1984 to host a local television
station's morning talk show ``A.M. Chicago'' _ which became ``The Oprah Winfrey
Show'' one year later. She set up Harpo the following year and her talk show
went into syndication.
Powered
by the show's staggering success, Winfrey built a media empire. Harpo Studios
produces shows hosted by Dr. Phil McGraw and celebrity chef Rachael Ray. O, The
Oprah Magazine was the 7th most popular magazine in the U.S. in the first half
of 2009.
``I
came from nothing,'' Winfrey wrote in the 1998 book ``Journey to Beloved.''
``No power. No money. Not even my thoughts were my own. I had no free will. No
voice. Now, I have the freedom, power, and will to speak to millions every day
_ having come from nowhere.''
In
2003, Winfrey, who spent her earliest years in abject poverty in rural
Mississippi in the then-segregated South, became the first African-American
woman to make Forbes magazine's billionaire's list. Earlier this year, Forbes
scored her net worth at $2.7 billion.
The
Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which cost her $40 million, opened
near Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2007.
Winfrey
also famously wept at the victory celebration in Chicago's Grant Park on the
night last November when Barack Obama, whom she endorsed, was elected the first
black U.S. president.
___
AP
Business Writer Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
___
On
the Net:
The
Oprah Winfrey Show: http://www.oprah.com/index
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