CHICAGO (AFP)US television superstar Oprah Winfrey, who rose from a childhood of abuse and poverty to become a global star, will on Friday announce that her talk show will end in 2011, her production firm said.
"The sun will set on the 'Oprah' show as its 25th season draws to a close on September 9, 2011," Tim Bennett, president of Winfrey's Harpo production company, wrote in a letter to affiliates.
"The Oprah Winfrey Show," which is currently syndicated in 145 countries, has transformed Winfrey into a cultural phenomenon.
She is credited with changing the way people talk to each other, having popularized a confessional interview style that has coaxed secrets, revelations and often tears from guests of all stripes.
She has questioned some of the world's most famous people and has earned a reputation for being able to score the most highly sought-after interview subjects.
Born into poverty in Mississippi, Winfrey is now estimated to be worth 2.7 billion dollars and is regularly ranked among the world's most powerful women, celebrities and media personalities.
Don Halcombe, a spokesman for Harpo Productions, declined to comment Thursday on why Winfrey decided to end her program.
"She's going to talk about it on the show" to be broadcast Friday, he told AFP.
There was speculation that she had decided to focus on her television channel called OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network -- a joint venture between Winfrey and Discovery Communications set to replace the Discovery Health Channel in about 70 million US homes.
While originally scheduled to air in 2010, getting the cable channel launched has proved "challenging" due to "management turnover and an uncertain advertising climate," the New York Times reported.
It is now scheduled to air in January 2011, but Winfrey, who will produce some shows and also make appearances, does not plan to bring her talk show, the Times reported.
Winfrey certainly will not lack for options -- her talk show served as the foundation for an empire that spans books, radio, magazines and the Internet.
She is known as an almost uniquely influential tastemaker, whose recommendation of a book or product has instantaneous and enormous effect.
Through her now-defunct televised book club she popularized works including Cormac McCarthy's "The Road."
Her stamp of approval was considered so important that she managed to convince the famously-reclusive author to appear on her show for his first ever television interview.
In 2008, she broke with a precedent of staying out of politics and endorsed fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama's presidential bid.
Her support was estimated by University of Maryland researchers to have brought in a million additional votes and helped Obama win both the Democratic nomination and the presidency.
In the years since the first broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 1985, Winfrey has helped launch the careers of other television celebrities, including popular US counselor Dr. Phil, who got their start on her broadcast.
She is also credited with breaking down barriers as both a woman and an African-American.
She began her own production company in 1985 and named it Harpo -- her name backwards -- and Forbes magazine declared her the first female African-American billionaire in 2003.
She also worked to overcome a painful history of child sexual abuse, supporting charities that help abused children and fighting for a national criminal database.
Former president Bill Clinton signed the database into law in what was known informally as the "Oprah Bill."
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