Editor’s Note: A Tribute to Oprah

NEW YORK: Like millions of other viewers, World Screen‘s group editorial director, Anna Carugati, watched the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. She shares her personal journey with this phenomenal woman.

I came late to The Oprah Winfrey Show. I was living in Italy during its first ten years and it was only when I moved back to the States in 1996 that I first saw the series. I was familiar with talk shows. In the early ’80s I had worked for CBS in Chicago and The Phil Donohue Show was taped in the same studios. I knew many of his staff members and the pressures they went through to book the right guests, the controversial subjects Phil often addressed and the loyal audience he had. Oprah had a formidable competitor, but she took the talk-show genre to another level.

I wasn’t a regular Oprah viewer. I just recorded the shows I was interested in. I loved seeing Julia Roberts and other celebrities goof around with Oprah—these were obviously genuine friendships (and if you saw Roberts and Tom Hanks’ last appearance on Oprah two weeks ago, you know what I mean). I saw Tom Cruise do his famous couch jumping and numerous times I was moved by the many examples Oprah gave of people overcoming adversity.

She bravely confronted racists, bigots and homophobes of all stripes. She repeatedly dedicated shows to child abuse and rape, she herself a victim of abuse as a child, and hardly a topic was taboo. 

While I greatly admired her talent, for years Oprah was just a show to me—albeit a thought-provoking and very well-produced one.

Boy, did that change over the course of the last two years! On a professional level I took notice when she announced that her 25th season would be her last and that she was starting her own channel, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture between her company, Harpo, Inc., and Discovery Communications. Together they were setting up a multiplatform media company “designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives,” the press announcement claimed.

I interviewed David Zaslav, Discovery’s president and CEO, and I recall him explaining the channel’s mission and some of the planned online initiatives saying they would be executed, “in a way that helps people. And in Oprah’s case, she will always be doing it in a way that helps people with their journeys. The journey to live your best life—a very simple concept but it’s a journey that we are all on.” 

Impressive words, but how would they deliver on that promise? Like many in the media business I wondered what OWN would be like, and whether the Oprah brand, as hugely successful as it was, with a hit show, a magazine and website loaded with information, could actually translate into and sustain a 24/7 channel.

OWN debuted on January 1, 2011, in approximately 80 million homes on what was the Discovery Health channel. I watched that first night; little did I know I was about to embark on an extraordinary experience. The first show I saw was Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, which gave a detailed look at the making of each show: deciding who would be on, booking guests, troubleshooting endless problems, but what struck me the most was Oprah herself: her straightforward manner, her respect for everyone—from stars to assistants, her management skills, her humor and her empathy.

I watched the last season of The Oprah Winfrey Show on a regular basis and between the daily show and Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes I understood the remarkable connection Oprah has with her audience. As a journalist myself, I really admire her interviewing skills, but what makes her exceptional is her intuitive understanding of human nature. The underprivileged black girl from rural Mississippi, who lived an extremely difficult childhood, who overcame her past and built a media empire, is in the unique position of being able to feel someone else’s pain, to recognize someone’s cry for validation, to see that what connects us all, deep, deep down, is the fear of being unworthy—of attention, of respect, of accomplishment, of love.

This is truly a universal theme, and probably the reason why The Oprah Winfrey Show has sold to some 150 countries around the world.

Yes, she has made millions, but she has given back tenfold. She has helped more than 68,000 students attend school. She has built schools in Africa. She has granted scholarships to hundreds of young men at Morehouse College. And this is just a very small part of her charitable activities.

But more important than anything else, in my opinion, is that when I watched her show, I would feel comforted, reassured and reaffirmed. No matter what was happening in my life, for one hour, I had a friend who cared and I felt it was OK to be me. I’m sure I am not the only one to feel this way.