The Oprah Winfrey Show was one of the most (if not the most) popular and influential daytime talk shows in the history of television, to the point where
most people probably think about Oprah when they think of a daytime talk show. It's also the longest-running and highest-rated show in that genre. Basically, just about everybody in the United States and no small number of people elsewhere know who Oprah is.
This show turned Oprah into a merchandising juggernaut. Whenever she sticks her Book Club sticker on a piece of literature, rest assured that the book in question will
shoot to the top of the bestseller list (though this has caused her some controversy before). She's turned
Dr. Phil,
Doctor Oz,
Rachael Ray, and Nate Berkus into successful talk show hosts in their own right. Finally, she's had some notable episodes over the years, including
Tom Cruise's couch-leaping, the "Weight Wagon" show (where she wheeled out a wagon of fat to demonstrate the weight she had lost), and the infamous episode where everybody in the audience received a new car.
However, there's been some controversy where Oprah is concerned. When Mad Cow Disease fears were at their peak in the '90s, she said that the fears stopped her from eating meat, which caused the beef industry to sue her for defamation. As a result, her show moved to Texas for a month so she could continue filming during the trial. Another such incident was the Book Club endorsement of James Frey's supposedly-autobiographical
A Million Little Pieces. When it turned out that
Frey had made it all up, she had him on and
tore him to pieces.
It may be
Snark Bait, it may be a
Guilty Pleasure, it may be
So Bad It's Good, but Oprah is not going anywhere. Though she ended her talk show on May 25, 2011 she has launched the
Oprah Winfrey
Network. The takeover has only just begun.
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