Oprah Winfrey will retire the syndicated talk show that made her rich, famous and, if not a kingmaker, a maker of a media empire, several bestselling authors and perhaps even a U.S. President.
There’s still plenty of time to pick up scented candles and black bunting: Winfrey isn’t leaving until the end of her contract with syndicator CBS Television Distribution, which runs through the 2010-11 season, its 25th on national TV. The last of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” would air on Sept. 9, 2011.
Harpo Productions on Thursday confirmed both Winfrey’s decision and that she will discuss it on her program, her last live show of the calendar year.
Speculation has been rampant that Winfrey might be preparing to leave daytime TV ever since it was announced in January 2008 that she and Discovery Networks planned to partner on a cable network: OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.
The new cable network’s debut, originally set for this year, already has been delayed more than once and a launch date is expected to be firmed up soon for sometime in 2010. OWN will take the place of what is now Discovery Health, available in 70 million homes from the start.
One hurdle for the new venture was that until Winfrey completed her commitment to CBS Television Distribution and the stations that carry her program, she would not be free to do a talk show for the cable channel or give other OWN matters her full attention. Even with an end date for her syndicated show in sight, it was not immediately clear whether she will actually do a program for the channel.
Winfrey was recruited to Chicago from Baltimore by then-WLS boss Dennis Swanson to take over “AM Chicago,” beginning in 1984. The way she challenged Phil Donahue, then the nation’s top daytime talker, in his home market, helped embolden Winfrey to enter syndication in 1986.
As Winfrey has told the story, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, who had begun to enjoy success in syndication himself with a review program he and Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel launched, had suggested the move to the national stage while on a date.
Winfrey’s program has dominated daytime TV for most of its run, evolving from typically exploitative fare into something more spiritual and, lately, has seemed to find a middle ground. She might offer the Black Eyed Peas or cast of the movie “Nine” one day, a young girl with a birth defect or a victim of a mauling another, and sometimes she could get celebrities such as Whitney Houston or Mackenzie Phillips to use her show as a confessional.
Ratings this season seem to have bounced back from lows last season some attributed to Winfrey’s vocal support of Barack Obama’s run for the White House, her first public political endorsement. The impact of backing Obama — on his campaign and on her show — remains difficult to truly measure. Even in the lean year, her program remained a dominant No. 1.
Winfrey also has starred in films such as “Beloved,” which got made only because she deemed it important, and Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple,” which she later shepherded onto Broadway.She also was a founding partner in the Oxygen cable network, but eventually left.
