Oprah Explains Her Exit While OWN Launch Is Announced

Oprah Winfrey explained why she was ending ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ on September 9, 2011.

“Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and feels right in my spirit,” she said.

“I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that have led me to this moment,” she said.

“Over this holiday break, my team and I will be brainstorming new ways that we can entertain you and inform you and uplift you when we return here in January,” she said. “And then, season 25 — we are going to knock your socks off.”

According to Nikki Finke, who broke the news about this announcement approximately two weeks ago, Oprah is ready to leave Chicago and move to Los Angeles. However, Oprah reportedly told CBS President Les Moonves she would not be moving her talk show to her cable network, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network).

“I just announced it to my team and I feel great about it,” sources tell me Winfrey said to Moonves.
“So you’re going to do the show on Discovery?” he asked.
“No,” Oprah assured him. “I’m not bringing The Oprah Winfrey Show to cable. I’ll do something else with that channel.”

[M]y sources say that, instead of a carbon copy of her longtime daytime talker, she’s now privately talking about hosting a show “that’s smaller and different” on the Discovery Communications start-up OWN, aka the Oprah Winfrey Network…

Hmmm… maybe that’s what Lisa Ling means when she warned Entertainment Tonight not to “count her out.” On one hand, this is the end of an era, but then I realize that this won’t happen for nearly two years (about 22 months).

Meanwhile, Discovery announced that OWN will debut in January 2011, eight months before Oprah’s show ends. Are you interested in seeing what that’s all about?

Photos by Wenn.com