Oprah Winfrey: "It's Time to End It"

On the heels of yesterday's announcement the "Oprah Winfrey Show" would go dark in 2011, Oprah Winfrey waited until the end of Friday's live show to comment publicly.

After interviews with the father and aunt of murdered 5-year old, Shaniya Davis and segments featuring "Precious" star Gabourey Sidibe and Ray Romano (in-studio to promote his new TNT drama, "Men of a Certain Age,") the true "Queen of All Media" took to the stage at the end of the hour to explain why the time was right to pull the plug.

Winfrey began by declaring, yes, she was ending her talk show in 2011 after 25 years in national syndication and urged viewers to ignore the coming conjecture about her reasons why. According to Winfrey, "I love the show enough to know when it's time to end it."

Winfrey teared up when she talked about what her audience has meant to her over the years and thanked them for coming on the journey with her. She promised the 25^th season would "knock [our] socks off," and to stay tuned as the 18-month countdown began. As she left the stage, the audience gave her a standing "O."

There has been rampant speculation Winfrey would not merely cancel her show, but rather, move it out of syndication, out of Chicago and to her cable network, "The Oprah Winfrey Network."

While national audiences were introduced to Winfrey in September of 1986, Chicagoans first met the lady with the gift for gab in 1984 when she took the reins of local morning show, "A.M Chicago" from future "Entertainment Tonight" host, Robb Weller. It wasn't long before her ratings overtook those of Phil Donahue's talk show, (who also filmed his show in Chicago) effectively driving Donahue out of town. It was fellow Chicagoan, movie critic Roger Ebert, who convinced Winfrey to syndicate her show nationally (during a date at Hamburger Hamlet.) Throughout its run, Winfrey has kept the show in its original 9:00 a.m. timeslot in Chicago on the local ABC station, WLS-TV.

The rest as they say is history. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" went on to become not only the No. 1 daytime talk show, winning multiple awards, Winfrey herself transcended the talk show genre, nabbing an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her turn in "The Color Purple," and becoming one of the most influential women in America. Her annual "Favorite Things" episode has been known to change the fortunes of many entrepreneurs, her "Book Club" turned unknown authors into "New York Times" best selling sensations and when she claimed during a 1996 show about mad cow disease, she would no longer eat beef, cattle sales plummeted. A defamation lawsuit ensued (Winfrey won) and Winfrey experienced nary a blip in popularity. Winfrey's empire includes "O" Magazine, a radio network on XM satellite radio, "Oprah and Friends," movie and TV production deals, "Oprah's Angel Network" and the "Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls," located in South Africa.

Oprah's departure will perhaps be felt most in Chicago, the city she has called home since the 1980's. Harpo Studios, which produces the "Oprah Winfrey Show," revitalized the city's crumbling West Loop neighborhood and pumps millions of dollars into the city's economy.

The show goes on hiatus until January 2010.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051116/COMMENTARY/511160301