The Oprah Winfrey Show
is an
American nationally
syndicated
talk-show, hosted and produced by
Oprah Winfrey.
It is the longest-running
daytime
television talk-show in the
United States, with 20 seasons and thousands
of episodes since it debuted on
September 8,
1986. The show has now been renewed for a
twenty-fifth
season, which will be broadcast in
2011.
Oprah, as it is
often referred to, has been seen by many critics
as one of the finest television talk-shows ever;
it was included in
Time magazine's shortlist of the best
television series of the twentieth century in
1998, and it made the top 50 of
TV Guide's countdown of the greatest shows
of all time
[1] in 2002.
The
show is highly influential, especially upon
women, and many of its topics penetrate into
American pop-cultural consciousness. While early
episodes of show followed a
Phil Donahue-style exploration of
sensationalistic social issues, Oprah eventually
transformed her series into a more positive,
spiritually uplifting experience marked by book
clubs,
celebrity interviews, self-improvement
segments, and philanthropic forays into world
events.
In
1983, Winfrey relocated to Chicago, Illinois to host WLS-TV's
low-rated half-hour morning talk show, AM Chicago. The first
episode aired on January 2, 1984. The show became successful and
was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, expanded to a full hour and
broadcast nationally beginning September 8, 1986. In the
mid-1990s the shows adopted a more serious format, addressing
issues that Winfrey thought were of importance to women, such as
infidelity, child abuse and cosmetic surgery. She often
interviews celebrities on issues that directly involve them in
some way, such as cancer, charity work, or substance abuse. In
addition, she interviews ordinary people who have done
extraordinary things or been involved in important current
issues.
One
of the show's features in recent years has been the "Wildest
Dreams" tour, which fulfills the dreams of many deserving people
reported to her producers by friends and family, be the dream a
new house, an encounter with a favourite performer, or a guest
role on a popular TV show. Informal discussions or Q&A sessions
with celebrity guests after the show are broadcast as Oprah
After The Show on her Oxygen network.
During a lawsuit against Winfrey (see Influence), she hired Dr.
Phil McGraw's company Courtroom Sciences, Inc. to help her
analyze and read the jury. Dr. Phil made such an impression on
Winfrey that she invited him to appear on her show. He accepted
the invitation and was a resounding success. McGraw appeared on
The Oprah Winfrey Show for several years before launching his
own show, Dr. Phil, in 2002, which is produced by Winfrey's
production company, Harpo Productions.
Perhaps Oprah's most famous recent show was the first episode of
the nineteenth season of The Oprah Winfrey Show in the fall of
2004. During the show each member of the audience received a new
Pontiac G6 sedan; the 276 cars were donated by Pontiac as part
of a publicity stunt.
Winfrey recently made a deal to extend her show until the 2010 –
2011 season, by which time it will have been on the air for
twenty-five years. She plans to host 140 episodes per season,
until her final season, when it will return to its current
number, 130.
The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Concert was hosted by Oprah and Tom
Cruise. There were musical performances by Cyndi Lauper, Andrea
Bocelli, Joss Stone, Chris Botti, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett and
others. The concert was broadcasted in the United States on Dec.
23, 2004 by E!. An unofficial Oprah fanclub, also organized a
petition drive in 2005, to nominate Oprah for the Nobel Peace
Prize.
As
well as hosting and appearing on television shows, Winfrey
co-founded the women's cable television network Oxygen. She is
also the president of Harpo Productions (Oprah spelled
backwards).
