Today in History: The final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show aired
The Oprah Winfrey Show aired an astounding 4 561 episodes over 25 seasons and 25 years, with it all coming to an end on Wednesday, 25 May, 2011.
The first episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show aired way back in 1986, and the show would win numerous awards over the next 25 years before its final episode on 25 May, 2011.
For the premiere, the show’s producers tried extremely hard 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 him failed, and Winfrey decided to “do what we do best, and that is a show about and with everyday people”.
The topic for the premiere show was “How to Marry the Man or Woman of Your Choice”.
The show would go on to become extremely influential, and many of its topics have penetrated into the American pop-cultural consciousness.
Over the years, Winfrey has used the show as an educational platform, featuring book clubs, interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events.
The show did not profit from the products it endorsed; it had no licensing agreement with retailers when products were promoted, nor has the show made any money from endorsing books for its book club.
The show received 47 Daytime Emmy Awards before Winfrey chose to stop submitting it for consideration in 2000.
In 2002, TV Guide ranked it at 49th on their 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, they re-ranked it as the 19th greatest TV show of all time.
Winfrey often gave away products on her show, with the tag line (adding whatever the giveaway is) “You get a …, you get a …, you get a …, everybody’s getting a … .”
One of her most memorable giveaways came on the first episode of the final season, when she gave the entire audience a trip to Australia with her and John Travolta.
On Monday, 13 September, 2010, the premiere of The Oprah Winfrey Show’s final season aired.
Winfrey opened the show with guest John Travolta and announced that the 300 guests in the audience were her most loyal fans and ultimate viewers of the show, who had expressed their admiration of the show through the show’s website and through e-mails.
Those 300 people were invited there specifically for the premiere show. She also said that Travolta was voted the show’s favourite guest.
At the end of the show, Winfrey announced that she was flying all 300 audience members with her to Australia and that John Travolta would be the pilot.
On 11 December, 2010 Winfrey arrived in Sydney, Australia to record shows at the Sydney Opera House.
Winfrey and her 300 American audience members were officially welcomed at a cocktail party in Sydney’s Botanical Gardens overlooking Sydney Harbour.
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