Oprah Announces Her Daytime Show Will End in 2011

Anyone who watches television, uses the internet, or listens to the news knows who Oprah Winfrey is. She is a phenomenon. Oprah currently stands out as the highest-rated talk show in American television history and also has the longest-running daytime television show in the United States.

Oprah debuted her first national broadcast show on September 8, 1986. I have to admit that after I started watching the first show I was hooked. In the mid eighties talk shows focused more on sensationalistic social issues so Oprah initially followed show formats such as Phil Donahue, Arsenio Hall, and Jerry Springer.

Oprah eventually transformed her talk show image as a positive, spiritually uplifting experience by featuring book clubs, celebrity interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events.

Some of Oprah’s shows that stand out are when Tom Cruise jumped onto Oprah’s couch professing his love for Katie Holmes, Michael Jackson attempting to clear his name to the public regarding his skin-pigment disorder, Oprah being sued by Texan cattlemen when she said she would stop eating burgers for fear of getting mad cow disease, leading a wagon of fat that represented the weight she had lost, and opening a leadership academy for girls in South Africa.

On November 20, 2009 Oprah stunned her audience by announcing that her show would be ending in September 2011. Oprah said “I knew then what a miraculous opportunity I had been given, but I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that have led me here. These years with you, our viewers, have enriched my life beyond measure. You all have graciously invited me into your living rooms, into your kitchens, into your lives. Your trust in me has brought me the greatest joy I have ever known.” Source

Oprah will be missed as a day time talk show host as the curtain closes on her show. The press says Oprah will be starting her own 24-hour cable network that “reflects her vision, values and interests” after her daily talk show ends. I feel certain it will be a success. Read More