Oprah is pulling the plug on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The Queen of Talk teared up as she announced that The Oprah Winfrey Show would be ending next year after its 25th season. Winfrey told her studio audience Friday that she would end the show in 2011 after a quarter-century on the air after “prayer and careful thought” over the decision.
“I love this show, this show has been my life,” she said, tears in her eyes. “I love it enough to know when to say goodbye. Twenty five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It’s the perfect number, the exact right time.”Read the rest of this entry »
Emmy-winning talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is among the Hollywood notables sounding off on Oprah Winfrey’s decision to step down from her throne as the most enterprising mogul in the history of modern television. Ellen took to her stage on Thursday to tell her audience about Oprah’s decision to end The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011, wrapping up 25 years of groundbreaking television. The comedienne is finding it hard to imagine a world without Oprah.
“I don’t think I could be here without her. I think she has blazed a trail,” said Ellen, who added that Oprah phoned her this afternoon to break the news. The ladies bonded after Ellen’s dogged pursuit to get on the cover of O Magazine earlier this year. Her dream finally came true when Oprah invited the star to join her on the holiday-themed December 2009 issue, now on newsstands.
“She will always be the queen of daytime television,” El remarked, before adding, “She also said she is leaving me all of her money.”
O’ No! The end of an era is upon us: After 25 seasons, Oprah Winfrey is bidding farewell to daytime TV.
Harpo Productions has confirmed that The Queen of Talk has decided to end the groundbreaking Oprah Winfrey Show she has helmed since 1985. Oprah began her broadcasting career in Nashville, Tenn., and Baltimore, Md., before relocating to Chicago in 1984 to host WLS-TV’s morning talk show A.M. Chicago. The show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show the next year and was nationally-syndicated by 1986. Read the rest of this entry »
You bet’cha! Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Sarah Palin sent ratings through the roof.
Monday’s Oprah, which featured an interview with the former Alaska governor and GOP VP candidate, snagged a 7.2 rating. In fact, the chat yielded O her best ratings in two years.
The Live Feed’s James Hibberd notes that the Nov. 16 episode drew an 8.7 household rating and 13 share, the highest since Oprah hosted the Osmonds in 2007. Palin, seen here with The Queen of Talk and daughters Willow and Piper, is promoting her memoir titled Going Rogue. The Oprah visit came on the heels of a rumor that the media mogul snubbed Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Nate Berkus is in discussions to add his own design series spinoff to Oprah’s Harpo machine.
The interior designer, who’s been a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show since 2001, is on the verge of inking a deal with O’s Harpo Productions to star in his own syndicated daytime talk show. It’s scheduled to premiere next fall, The New York Times reported this week.
Oprah Winfrey will face a pay cut if she decides to continue doing Oprah through 2011.
The Queen of Talk’s deals with local stations and her CBS TV Distribution deal expire in fall 2011, and, according to Variety, local network aren’t willing to pay as much for the right to air the nearly 25 year old talk show as years past.
“Stations have made it clear to [Winfrey's production company] Harpo that if she does come back, they’ll significantly reduce the license fees they pay,” one exec tells Variety. “Station revenues are down 40 percent to 50 percent, but they’re paying license fees projected on revenue remaining the same. Plus, her ratings are going down. She’s still the queen, but that’s an enormous problem.”
On Monday, November 16, Oprah will debut her interview with Sarah Palin as the former Alaska governor prepares to release her eagerly-awaited memoir, Going Rogue. What does Sarah have to say about former almost son-in-law Levi Johnston and her less-than-impressive interview with Katie Couric?
“The campaign said, ‘Right on. Good. You’re showing your independence. This is what America needs to see and it was a good interview.’ And of course I’m thinking, ‘If you thought that was a good interview, I don’t know what a bad interview is because I knew it was a bad interview.’”
The Connecticut woman left mauled and blinded after being attacked by a friend’s 200-pound chimpanzee last February will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show this week, Harpo Productions said in a statement Monday.
Charla Nash will appear on Wednesday’s Oprah to discuss how she’s adjusting to life after her near-death experience and what the future holds for her.
Last Winter, Travis the Chimp went berserk when his owner asked Charla to help lure him back into her house in Stamford, Connecticut. The animal ripped off Charla’s hands, nose, lips and eyelids before being stabbed during the attack. A Connecticut state biologist had warned state officials several years before that Travis was too dangerous to live among humans.
Author Stephenie Meyer will appear on Oprah this Friday. The woman behind the smash Twilight literary and film franchise will promote the opening of the second film in the trilogy during an interview with the Queen of Talk this week. “Since I’m only doing one interview, better make it big. Really big. So … I will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday, November 13th,” Stephenie blogged on Saturday.
New Moon, the second film in The Twilight Saga series, opens in theaters Nov. 20.
Last March, Oprah appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to grant one of Ellen’s wildest dreams — to appear on the cover of O Magazine — and it’s finally happening!
Ellen’s covers the December issue of O! The holiday-themed “Get Your Glow On!” issue arrives on newsstands Nov. 12. Ellen will also stop by Oprah this Monday to talk about life with wife Portia and her new job as a judge on American Idol.
“When Ellen arrived at the photo shoot for our cover, I didn’t have to ask her how she was doing: it showed on her face,” Oprah says. “She radiated the kind of peace and satisfaction that comes only when you’re living at your highest potential.”
