The Oprah Winfrey Show/Oprah
 When Oprah Winfrey rose to national syndication success in 1986
by challenging Phil Donahue in major markets around the USA (and
winning ratings victories in many of these markets) she did not
change the format of the audience participation talk show. That
remained essentially as Donahue had established it twenty years
before.
What changed was the cultural dynamics of this kind of show and
that in turn was a direct reflection of the person who hosted it.
The ratings battle that ensued in 1986 was between a black
woman raised by a religious grandmother and strict father within
the fold of a black church in the South against a white, male,
liberal, Catholic Midwesterner who had gone to Notre Dame and been
permanently influenced by the women's movement.
As Jackie Robinson had broken baseball's colour barrier four
decades earlier, Oprah Winfrey broke the colour line for national
television talk show hosts in 1986.
She became one of the great rags-to-riches story of the 1980s
(by the early 1990s People Weekly was proclaiming her
"the richest woman in show business" with an estimated
worth of $200 million), and as Arsenio Hall and Bob Costas ended
their six and seven year runs on television in the early 1990s, it
became clear that Oprah Winfrey had staying power.
She remained one of the few prominent talk show hosts of the
1980s to survive within the cluttered talk show landscape of the
mid-1990s.
Several factors contributed to this success. For one thing,
Winfrey had a smart management team and a huge national marketing
campaign to catapult her into competition with Donahue. The
national syndication deal had been worked out by Winfrey'
representative, attorney-manager Jeffrey Jacobs, and King World's
marketing plan was a classic one.
Executives at King World felt the media would pounce on "a
war with Donahue" so they created one. The first step was to
send tapes of Oprah's shows to "focus groups" in several
localities to see how they responded. The results were positive.
The next step was to show tapes to selected small network alliance
stations under a single owner. These groups would be offered
exclusive broadcast rights.
 As
the reactions began to come in, King World adjusted its tactics.
Rather than making blanket offers, they decided to open separate
negotiations in each city and market.
The gamble paid off. Winfrey's track record proved her a
"hot enough commodity" to win better deals through
individual station negotiation.
To launch Winfrey on the air King World kicked off a major
advertising campaign. Media publications trumpeted Oprah's ratings
victories over Donahue in Baltimore and Chicago.
The "Donahue-buster" strategy was tempered by Winfrey
herself, who worked hard not to appear too arrogant or
conceited.
When asked about head-on competition with Donahue she replied
that in a majority of markets she did not compete with him
directly and that while Donahue would certainly remain "the
king," she just wanted to be "a part of the
monarchy."
By the time The Oprah Winfrey Show went national in
September of 1986 it had been signed by over 180 stations - less
than Donahue's 200-plus, but approaching that number.
Cultural issues also featured prominently in Winfrey's
campaign. Winfrey's role as talk show host was inseparable from
her identity as an African American woman. Her African American
heritage and roots surfaced frequently in press accounts. One
critic described her in a 1986 Spy magazine article as
"capaciously built, black, and extremely noisy."
 These and other comments on her "black" style were
not lost on Winfrey. She confronted the issue of race constantly
and was very conscious of her image as an African American role
model.
When a USA Today reporter queried Winfrey bluntly about
the issue of race in August of 1986, asking her "as someone
who is not pencil-thin, white, nor blonde," how she was
"transcending barriers that have hindered many in
television," Winfrey replied as follows:
"I've been able to do it because my race and gender have
never been an issue for me. I've been blessed in knowing who I am,
and I am a part of a great legacy. I've crossed over on the backs
of Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, and Fannie Lou Hamer, and
Madam C.J. Walker. Because of them I can now soar. Because of them
I can now live the dream"
The final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show aired in the
USA on Wednesday 25 May 2011. It was preceded by a two-part
farewell special recorded at the United Center in Chicago in front
of an audience of 13,000.
The two-part show featured appearances
by Aretha Franklin,
Tom Cruise, Stevie Wonder,
Beyoncé, Tom Hanks, Maria Shriver, Will Smith, and Madonna.
|
