Mega-media-uber-lady Oprah Winfrey is turning off her talk show microphone in 2011. She’s supposed to announce her retirement on today’s show.
It will be her 25th season. She’ll concentrate and appear in some form, instead, on her new cable station, OWN.
Do you watch Oprah? I do not, but I know people who buy what she says to buy and read what she says to read. This will leave a huge gap in leadership in their lives. I’m only half-kidding.
Dating Jesus 
I never really liked her show. She’s successful, no doubt, but I look up to other people like Ben Carson and Mae Jemison (whom I got to hear speak 2 weeks back!).
I cannot stand the whole Secret craze (I don’t like pop psych), or people only buying books to read because she recommended them. It makes us avid readers look bad.
I appreciate the power she has and wish I had it for my own. I kid. Too much pressure. I can barely get my own act together, much less lead a band of merry wishful thinkers.
“…or people only buying books to read because she recommended them…”
But if I watched her, would I actually FINISH reading a book?
She recommended one I actually read and liked. Now if I could just remember the title…
Does the Oprah magazine go away as well? If it did that would certainly “pretty-up” the check-out lines in supermarkets.
Oprah lost me when she went after cattle farmers, when she was jumping up and down saying “We Won! We Won! (after the 2008 election), and when she had Carla Nash on last week.
I never really got into the show — mostly because I’m at work when it’s on and I never thought to record or Tivo (don’t have Tivo, but I’m trying to look cool here).
Susan,
You don’t need a Tivo to be cool, you have an awesome book, not one, but two blog sites, and killer sense of humor, you are plenty cool, or as my students would say…Girl, you are mad cool! Hey you know what would be really cool…if you became a card-carrying Republican! :)
You had me right up until mad cool….
Todd, I’m glad you brought up the Carla Nash episode. I don’t watch Oprah, but I watched that one. I don’t know what that says about me but let me say this: I hope Carla did it for herself. I watched it because I wanted to see a brave woman who survived a horrible event. I wanted to see how she was managing and how she could live beyond the event. I saw that in Carla and although she has no memory of the attack, she remembers the before and the now. She’s experenced extreme loss and knows that and still seemed to be okay. Selfishly, to me, that’s inspiring.
I did not like the way Oprah tried to question around the event to get some sort of memory out. A person’s brain doesn’t remember trauma that extreme for a reason and no one should insist that it be drawn out. It’ll come when Carla is ready and able to handle it. I hope people leave her alone when it comes to that.
I also didn’t like the way the whole show built up to revealing her face. That, in my opinion, was missing the point of who she was and what she’s been through. On the other hand, maybe it allowed the audience to know her first before seeing the face. For me, by the end of the show, I didn’t care about seeing the damage. However, maybe Carla is relieved to have that part of her innner healing over with. Now, no one will be shocked – they’ve already seen her. No one will be sneaking around to get the first photo.
I won’t miss Oprah’s show though because I don’t watch it. She does a lot of good things so I have no bad feelings toward her. After 25 years of doing the same show, I’m not surprised that she’s ready to move on.
Jac,
I too hope that Carla Nash did Oprah for herself. The whole thing felt like a car wreck to me. I run everyday and have been bitten by more dogs than I care to remember…when I read what happened to Nash, my heart sank. Because of my history with dogs, I never, ever trust any animal…I can’t imagine the pain that Nash is in now. I do not watch Oprah but, I too did see the Nash episode on my computer. Sad, very sad.
She said she was in no (physical) pain.
I didn’t watch it but the still photos were just unimaginable.
Thank God she remembers nothing about the attack or the pain during it. She said she feels no pain now. The mind is a powerful, sometimes protective thing.
Isn’t it? And I’m so very glad it is — for her and for any one who suffers trauma.
On yeah, one more thing…perhaps the most egregious thing she ever did was that car give-away episode…it was a “Look at me…I am Oprah, I am giving brand new cars to people who can’t afford them…I am wonderful.” She should have given the cars out and not turned it into a episode of her show. Sadly, a lot of the people she gave cars to ended up losing them due to upkeep, property tax, and other issues.
I had my own issue with that car-give-away. Was she also paying for insurance for those cars? Not to get snotty, but I wondered how those people would be able to keep those cars on the road. Then, too, they might have been able to do that, and use them for getting back and forth to work, doctor’s appointments, etc. I don’t know. I’m conflicted about ol’ O.
I don’t watch Oprah but there are some shows she does when I wish I had DVR. I like her as a person, she is honest about her personal conflicts, her struggles with food and with her weight and I appreciate that. She’s hella rich but she is generous as well. The car thing was weird but I mean, who cares? She just gave cars to a bunch of people who needed them. Do people complain when she gives this stuff to other people, one at a time? Nope.
She’s weird and she really lost me the season of The Secret but I think she is a good person at the end of it.
Glory fuckin’ hallelujah.
I’ve never watched much Oprah.
But I’ve watched Moyers for as long as I can remember. He announced his retirement this week as well.
He’s 75.
I hope PBS puts together a retrospective of his career.
Maybe he’ll go on Oprah.
THIS makes me sad. What a voice for and of reason Moyers is, and a champion of Doing the Right Thing. Over the past few elections I’d fantasize that he’d run for the presidency (and win, of course), but when he was asked about that a couple of years ago, he said he was too tired.
I think he’s too smart, too. Why would any one want to subject themselves to that awful process?
I did not know this. Thank you, Leftover.