End of an epoch - The Oprah Winfrey Show goes to history

(Oprah Winfrey)

As everybody knows, The Oprah Winfrey Show is ending Wednesday after a spectacularly successful, quarter-century run.

Of course, her leave-taking has caught no one by surprise. She made it official in November 2009, declaring that "the countdown to the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show starts now."

For a whole generation of Americans, Winfrey has been a moral arbiter, lifestyle coach and window on the world. How then will they manage without Oprah as a daily TV reference point? How will they know what to read, buy or think?

Monday’s and Tuesday’s farewell episodes were taped last week in front of crowd of 13,000 at Chicago’s United Center.

Tom Hanks, Michael Jordan, Tom Cruise, Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, Beyonce, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Seinfeld were among the many luminaries on hand for the two-part Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular.

Then Wednesday’s show, being kept tight under wraps, is meant as a surprise for the viewers. The only thing that is for sure is that 30 seconds of advertising space will be charged USD 1 million.

Oprah will reside 2,900 kilometres from Chicago, in Santa Barbara, California. But she will not be silent nor invisible. Her five-month-old cable channel, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, is meant to be a round-the-clock, always-open source of Oprah-nalia, with Winfrey its spiritual curator maintaining a constant presence, even from off-camera.

Oprah Winfrey Show

Tom Hanks

Michael Jordan

Tom Cruise

Madonna

Stevie Wonder

Will Smith

Beyonce

Aretha Franklin

Jerry Seinfeld

Oprah Winfrey Network

OWN

talk show