The Oprah Winfrey Show, an iconic, influential broadcast that grew over two decades into a daytime television powerhouse and the foundation of a multibillion-dollar empire, will end its run on 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, Winfrey’s production company said on Thursday night. Winfrey plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast on Friday, Harpo Productions Inc said, bringing an end to what has been US television’s top-rated talk show for more than two decades, airing in 145 countries worldwide and watched by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the Unites States alone.
A Harpo spokeswoman declined to comment on Thursday on Winfrey’s future plans except to say that The Oprah Winfrey Show will not move to cable television. Over the years, The Oprah Winfrey Shows grew from a newcomer that chipped away at talk king Phil Donahue’s dominance into a programme that turned inspirational. The show covered a gamut that ranged from interviews with the world’s most famous celebrities to to an honest discussion about her weight struggles.
“As that show evolved, it really kind of dressed up the neighborhood of the day-time talk show,” said Robert Thompson, professor of the television and popular culture at Syracuse University. Winfrey, 55, is widely expected to start up a new talk show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a much-delayed joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc that is expected to debut in 2011. OWN is to replace the Discovery Health Channel and will debut in some 74 million homes.