Oprah - Media Royalty
Oprah Gail Winfrey, better known to her adoring fans as just Oprah. Internationally known as the queen of daytime television (sorry Ellen DeGeneres your time will come). For 25 years the Oprah Winfrey Show, or better known as the O, has been the show that has been penciled into almost every woman’s schedule at 4 o’clock eastern time has created a fan base that words can try to depict but cannot describe how many are dedicated to this show. From humble beginnings in the Deep South to being one of the most powerful women in the world, her claim to fame is nothing short of amazing. Since this is the final season of Oprah we’ve decided to take a look back on not only Oprah’s career but the diverse number of fans and how much power the “Oprah Effect” has had on politicians, movie stars, ordinary people with a story to tell and everything in between.
Oprah was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi to Vernita Lee who at the time was an unwed teenage mother. In her youth Oprah was moved around as a child due to her mother not being able to support her. Also growing up, she has said that she was molested by her uncle, cousin, and family friend starting at the age of nine. Along with being very poor, one could argue Oprah had a “different” upbringing than most other well known talk show hosts. When she was 13 she decided to run away and a year later gave birth to a son who died shortly there after. Oprah attended several high schools and ended up graduating from East Nashville High School where she was voted most popular girl in school and won an oratory contest that gained a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically black college where she majored in communication.
In 1983, after becoming a new anchor in the city of Nashville and Baltimore, she moved to Chicago to host WLS-TV radio talk show that had rating that were mediocre at best. After her talking the talk gained so much popularity that it replaced The Phil Donahue Show, the number one talk show in America at the time, as the number one talk show in Chicago. After being endorsed to start her very own talk show by the well renowned movie critic Roger Ebert, The Oprah Winfrey Show made its first appearance on national television on September 8th, 1986.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati