The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show, often referred to as The Oprah Show or simply Oprah, is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, from Chicago, Illinois. Produced and hosted by Oprah Winfrey, it remains the highest-rated daytime talk show in American television history.[2]
This article is about the television talk show. For its host, see Oprah Winfrey.The Oprah Winfrey Show
Talk show
Infotainment
Joseph C. Terry
Reed Woodworth
Oprah Winfrey
United States
English
25
4,561[1]
Harpo Studios
Chicago, Illinois
40–45 minutes
WLS-TV Chicago
(1986–1988)
(seasons 1–3)
Harpo Productions
(1988–2010)
(seasons 3–24)
Harpo Studios
(2010–2011)
(season 25)
September 8, 1986 –
May 25, 2011
The show was highly influential to many young stars, and many of its themes have penetrated into the American pop-cultural consciousness. Winfrey used the show as an educational platform, featuring book clubs, interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events. The show did not attempt to profit off the products it endorsed; it had no licensing agreement with retailers when products were promoted, nor did the show make any money from endorsing books for its book club.[3]
Oprah was one of the longest-running daytime television talk shows in history. The show received 47 Daytime Emmy Awards before Winfrey chose to stop submitting it for consideration in 2000.[4] In 2002, TV Guide ranked it at No. 49 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.[5] In 2013, they ranked it as the 19th greatest TV show of all time.[6] In 2023, Variety ranked The Oprah Winfrey Show #17 on its list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time.[7]
In November 2009, Winfrey announced that the show would conclude in 2011 following its 25th and final season. The series finale aired on May 25, 2011.
Early history[edit]
Oprah had its roots in A.M. Chicago, a half-hour morning talk show airing on WLS-TV, an ABC owned-and-operated station in Chicago. In 1983, Dennis Swanson, the new general manager of WLS-TV, hired Winfrey to replace Robb Weller, that program's former host.[8][9] Winfrey took over as host on January 2, 1984, and, within a month, took it from last place to first place in local Chicago ratings.[10] By 1985, the local A.M. Chicago program was renamed to The Oprah Winfrey Show.[11] Following Winfrey's success in—and Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for—her performance as Sofia in the film The Color Purple, on September 8, 1986, the talk show was relaunched under its current title and picked up nationally.[12] For the premiere, the show's producers tried rigorously to book Miami Vice's Don Johnson as the first guest, even trying to bribe him with Dom Pérignon and a pair of rhinestone sunglasses. All attempts to book Johnson failed and Winfrey decided to "do what we do best, and that is a show about and with everyday people". The theme for the premiere show was "How to Marry the Man or Woman of Your Choice".[13]
International syndication[edit]
The show aired on most ABC-owned stations in the United States (except KTRK-TV, but CBS-affiliate KHOU carried the show for the entire run) (as well as various other stations through CBS Television Distribution, successor to King World), CTV in most Canadian markets,[105] Diva Universal in Malaysia,[106] TV3 in Ireland,[107] GNT in Brazil, national TV3 in Sweden, Network Ten in Australia, La7d in Italy, MBC 4 in the Arab world, MetroTV in Indonesia, FARSI1 in Iran, Star World in South Asia, and in the Netherlands on RTL4.
In the United Kingdom, the show has been broadcast on a number of different channels. Channel 4 first broadcast the series on Monday October 3, 1988,[108] The BBC & Sky one acquired the rights and started broadcasting the series from 9 January 1995[109] which meant at time during 1995 the show went out on 3 different channel. Five[110] pick up the terrestrial rights from early 1998. Rights subsequently went to Living TV by 2002, followed by ITV2 in 2006, and then to Diva TV, until rights went to TLC for the last couple of series.
The show aired in 149 countries worldwide and was often renamed and dubbed into other languages.[111]
Media related to The Oprah Winfrey Show at Wikimedia Commons