OPRAH WINFREY
- WHO IS SHE? -
G'day folks,
Billionaire
media executive and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey is best known for hosting her
own internationally popular talk show from 1986 to 2011. From there she
launched her own television network, OWN.
Who Is Oprah Winfrey?
Oprah Winfrey
is a talk show host, media executive, actress and billionaire philanthropist.
She’s best known for being the host of her own, wildly popular program, The
Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired for 25 seasons, from 1986 to 2011. In 2011,
Winfrey launched her own TV network, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
Born in
the rural town of Kosciusko, Mississippi, Winfrey moved to Baltimore in 1976,
where she hosted People Are Talking. Afterward, she was recruited by a
Chicago TV station to host her own morning show.
Early Life and Education
Winfrey
was born in the rural town of Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954.
After a troubled adolescence in a small farming community, where she was
sexually abused by a number of male relatives and friends of her mother,
Vernita, Winfrey moved to Nashville to live with her father, Vernon, a barber
and businessman.
In 1971,
Winfrey entered Tennessee State University. She began working in radio and
television broadcasting in Nashville.
Early Broadcasting Career
In 1976,
Winfrey moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she hosted the TV chat show People
Are Talking. The show became a hit and Winfrey stayed with it for eight
years, after which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own
morning show, A.M. Chicago.
Within
several months, Winfrey's open, warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,000
more viewers than Donahue and had taken her show from last place to first in
the ratings.
'The Oprah Winfrey Show'
Winfrey
launched The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 as a nationally
syndicated program that ran for 25 years, until 2011. With its placement on 120
channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by
the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million.
She soon
gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her
new production company, Harpo Productions ('Oprah' spelled backwards)
and making more and more money from syndication.
In 1994,
with talk shows becoming increasingly trashy and exploitative, Winfrey pledged
to keep her show free of tabloid topics. Although ratings initially fell, she
earned the respect of her viewers and was soon rewarded with an upsurge in
popularity.
Projects
with Harpo have included the highly-rated 1989 TV miniseries, The Women of
Brewster Place, in which Winfrey also starred.
In 2004,
Winfrey signed a new contract to continue The Oprah Winfrey Show through
the 2010-11 season. At the time, the syndicated show was seen on nearly 212
U.S. stations and in more than 100 countries worldwide.
In 2009,
Winfrey announced that she would be ending her program when her contract with
ABC ended, in 2011.
Clancy's comment: I've always found her to be a very smart and articulate woman, and I'm a big fan of smart women.
I'm ...
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