Oprah to host final talk show in 2011

Oprah Winfrey will host her final talk show in 2011, ending a 25-year run.

Winfrey plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast on Friday, Harpo Productions Inc said on Thursday night.

The Oprah Winfrey Show grew into a daytime television powerhouse and the foundation of a multibillion-dollar media empire.

It has been US television's top-rated talk show for more than two decades, airing in 145 countries worldwide and watched by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the US alone.

A Harpo spokeswoman declined to comment on Winfrey's future plans, except to say that The Oprah Winfrey Show will not move to cable television.

Over the years, The Oprah Winfrey Show grew from a newcomer that chipped away at talk king Phil Donahue's dominance into a program that turned inspirational.

The show ranged from interviews with the world's most famous celebrities to an honest discussion about her weight struggles.

"As that show evolved, it really kind of dressed up the neighbourhood of the daytime talk show," said Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.

"There was a seriousness to it, as though what she was doing was a calling and not just a television show."

Winfrey famously wept in Chicago's Grant Park as Barack Obama, who she endorsed, was elected president.

Earlier this year, Forbes scored Winfrey's net worth at $US2.7 billion ($A2.94 billion), even as the magazine knocked her from atop its list of the world's most powerful celebrities. The honour went to Angelina Jolie but Winfrey was still No. 2 on the annual Celebrity 100 list - and the top earner at $US275 million ($A299 million).

Winfrey, 55, is widely expected to start up a new talk show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a much-delayed joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc that is expected to debut in 2011.

OWN is to replace the Discovery Health Channel and will debut in some 74 million homes. An OWN spokeswoman declined to comment on Thursday.

CBS Television Distribution, which distributes The Oprah Winfrey Show to more than 200 markets blanketing the United States, held out hope that it could continue doing business with Winfrey, perhaps producing a new show out of its studios in Los Angeles.

"We have the greatest respect for Oprah and wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavours," the unit of CBS Corp said in a statement.

"We know that anything she turns her hand to will be a great success. We look forward to working with her for the next several years, and hopefully afterwards as well."

Winfrey's 24th season opened earlier this year with a bang, as she drew more than 20,000 fans to Chicago's Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue for a block party with the Black Eyed Peas.

She followed up with a series of blockbuster interviews - boxers Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, an exclusive with singer Whitney Houston, and just this week, former Republican vice presidential candidate and best-selling author Sarah Palin.

In 1986, pianist-showman Liberace gave his final TV interview to Winfrey, just six weeks before he died.

In a widely viewed prime-time special aired in 1993, Michael Jackson revealed he suffered from a skin condition that produces depigmentation.

Tom Cruise enthusiastically declared his affection for the much-younger Katie Holmes on the program in 2005 - and jumped on the couch to prove it.

In 2004, Winfrey unveiled her most famous giveaway, when nearly 300 members of the studio audience opened a gift box to find the keys to a new car inside. The stunt became a classic show moment as much for Oprah's reaction - "You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!" - as its $US7 million ($A7.61 million) price tag.

The show also became a launching pad for Oprah's Book Club, and authors whose books were selected became best-sellers.

The loss of The Oprah Winfrey Show would be a blow to CBS Corp because it earns a percentage of hefty licensing fees from TV stations that use it.

Talk of the show's end often has accompanied impending contract negotiations for Winfrey. Before she signed her current contract in 2004, she had talked about quitting after the 2005-2006 season. As far back as 1995, she had called continuing "a difficult and important decision".

Winfrey started her broadcasting career as a teenager in Nashville, Tennessee, reading the news at WVOL.

Two years later, Winfrey started co-anchoring news broadcasts on WTVF-TV in Nashville.

In 1976 she moved to Baltimore to anchor newscasts at WJZ-TV before becoming host of the local talk show People Are Talking.

In 1984, she relocated to Chicago to host WLS-TV's morning talk show AM Chicago - the show became The Oprah Winfrey Show one year later. She set up Harpo the following year and her talk show went into syndication.

Powered by the show's staggering success, Winfrey built a wide-ranging media empire. Harpo Studios produces shows hosted by Dr Phil McGraw and celebrity chef Rachael Ray, and O, The Oprah Magazine was the 7th most popular US magazine in the first half of 2009.

"I came from nothing," Winfrey wrote in the 1998 book Journey to Beloved.

"No power. No money. Not even my thoughts were my own. I had no free will. No voice. Now, I have the freedom, power, and will to speak to millions every day - having come from nowhere."

In 2003, Winfrey became the first black woman to make Forbes magazine's billionaire's list, and just the second African-American after BET cable network founder Robert Johnson.

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which cost her $US40 million ($A43.51 million), opened near Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2007.