It’s one of the biggest news stories I remember in recent years — The Oprah Winfrey Show is ending.
That's right, after 25 years, a tearful Winfrey announced on Friday's show that her iconic talk show will go off the air in 2011.
“I love this show. This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when it's time to say goodbye,” Winfrey told viewers at the end of her live broadcast. “Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It’s the perfect number, the exact right time.”
Winfrey’s show changed the talk-show genre and became a cultural phenomenon. And not only did she manage to make her guests feel comfortable enough to divulge seemingly anything and everything, O is also known for her influence, from books to clothing.
And let’s not forget that she is also credited with breaking down barriers as both a woman and an African-American.
There has been speculation for some time that she was going to call it quits to focus on her new television channel, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network (a joint venture between Winfrey and Discovery Communications which will replace the Discovery Health Channel), but nothing was official. Until today.
Getting the cable channel has proved “challenging”, the New York Times reported, and due to “management turnover and an uncertain advertising climate” it is now set to debut in January 2011.
While Oprah didn’t inform viewers what her immediate plans are, she warned them that the speculation in the press “will mostly be conjecture.”
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