As so often down the years, she shared the moment with viewers.
Oprah – no surname necessary – announced yesterday that she will end her daytime talk show in 2011 after a 25-year run.
Viewers weren’t the first to hear the news, mind. Television executives had been informed the evening before, thus ensuring global press coverage and record ratings for last night’s show.
A hug for the audience and an eye for the bottom line: the same qualities that made her eponymous show a success were deployed to signal its passing.
It will be touted as the end of a television era. Well, yes and no. At a time when television is awash with people on sofas emoting about this, that, or the boyfriend who has fallen in love with their aunt’s second cousin’s Chihuahua, it’s hard to appreciate the impact Oprah once had.
She wasn’t the first to turn a TV studio into a confession box. Phil Donahue had been doing his thing for more than a decade before Oprah came along. But when she did arrive, Oprah used the format to explore places hitherto unknown to many viewers. She smashed taboos – on sexuality, child abuse, mental illness, race and several other subjects – as if they were so many ugly pieces of china in her nation’s cupboard.
Time magazine credited her with reinventing the talk show as group therapy session. America was on the couch, with Oprah holding its hand. Sometimes it was Oprah on the couch, talking about dreadful incidents in her own past, or even just her struggles with weight.
It is possible, should a media studies student be so minded, to draw a line between Oprah and the likes of Jeremy Kyle, but to do so would be to compare diamonds with dust. There was intelligence at work in Oprah’s programmes: they were not moral mud wrestling for the masses.
Then there was what Oprah did with her profile. While she earned plenty of money – the world’s first black billionaire – she put a lot of it back into helping others.
Oprah’s talk show might resurface on her own cable television network, launching next year. A more intriguing question is where Oprah herself wants to go next. There was once the suggestion of a senate seat, taking over the vacancy from Obama in Illinois. Her response: “I think I could be a senator. I’m just not interested.”
Given Oprah’s track record, being a senator would be small fry. She might want to follow Obama in other ways. The credits are about to roll on Oprah the talk show, but Oprah the operator is not done yet.
Between the Carry On cleaner, the ditzy glamour models and their continent-sized bosoms, the comedy Italian chef, and big Joe Bugner scaring the heavyweight title out of everyone, it looks set to be another vintage year in the undergrowth.
Unless, that is, you are one of the millions of creatures laying down their lives in the name of ITV1 entertainment. Now, we’re all up for seeing overpaid, overrated celebrities scream and cry at a bit of discomfort, but is it really necessary to involve other living beings in the process?
Imagine what the various critters would say if they were in the Bush Telegraph hut. Meet the cockroach that broke a leg plunging the depths of Jordan’s cleavage. Hear from the poor kangaroo that had to give up its didgeridoo so that some no-mark could make a face while eating it. As for those horses involved in the river crossing, what a tale they would have.
Pull your finger out producers and find other ways of dumping on celebs – before this viewer, for one, dumps you.
Some might find the list extravagant, but not me. Currently, my only riders for this column are a packet of crisps and a limber sub-editor. I’m now going to add to that list a white tiger to rest my feet on, a new designer outfit to change into every hour, and a 48-piece orchestra. Too much?
