Who will inherit Oprah’s viewers?

• First celebrity to publicly endorse Obama keeps mum on her future plans

Never mind that she still has a solid two years to go before she ends her talkshow, The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 9, 2011. The initial shock and disbelief has turned to who will inherit her seven million daily viewers.

Twenty five years after her show first went on air, you cannot question the power of Oprah Winfrey. She has the ratings, influence and money to show for it.

She was famously sued by Texas farmers in 1996 who claimed she had caused a decline in beef sales after she questioned the safety of meat on her show.

She was also the first celebrity to publicly endorse Senator Barack Obama for president, a nod many saw as the turning point that ultimately led him to become the most powerful man in the world.

According to New York Times, “Ms Winfrey’s departure could even affect the ratings for the network evening newscasts”.

So who will take over? Will it be Tyra Banks, Ellen DeGeneres, Dr Phil or Dr Oz or will there emerge some new force and take over? That’s the question.

The latter two shows are the closest to Winfrey’s in ratings and they are both her proteges. Degeneres seems to be the heir apparent with even Oprah appearing to be anointing her. She is even posing next to Winfrey on the latest cover of O, The Magazine.

Jerry Springer

“Ellen is probably in the best position to move into that role,” said daytime TV host Jerry Springer. “Guests won’t be afraid to go on Ellen. Any edge she might have is neutralised by her humour. She can be light, yet she’s obviously bright. If you’re looking to sell something, like a book or a political idea, you’re not going to get beaten up by going on her show.”

Winfrey “will always be the queen of daytime television,” Ms DeGeneres told her audience after taping her talk show last week — “and she also said she is leaving me all of her money,” she joked.

The Dr Oz Show, which had its premiere in September, has averaged 3.5 million viewers in daytime, only 250,000 fewer than Dr Phil two weeks ago, CBS extended its station deals for Dr Phil through 2014 in 20 of the country’s top 25 markets.

Contracts for Dr Oz and Dr Phil forbid them from being shown at the same hour as Winfrey’s — but those restrictions end when her talk show ends.

On Friday, Winfrey said she will end her popular TV show because it “feels right in her bones”, and urged viewers not to believe rumours of why she’s quitting.

“This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when it’s time to say goodbye. Twenty five years feels right in my bones, and it feels right in my spirit. It’s the perfect number, the exact right time,” Winfrey said at her Chicago studio.

Winfrey, 55, did not divulge her future plans. But her production company Harpo Inc said in a statement that once production ends on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011, she “plans to appear and participate in new programming for OWN”, the Los Angeles-based cable TV venture she formed with Discovery Communications Inc (DISCA.O).

Harpo said the launch date for OWN, or the Oprah Winfrey Network, which will be seen in more than 70 million homes, was now set for January 2011.

During her long career atop the television talk show heap, Winfrey’s fluctuating weight and personal relationships have become tabloid fodder, and commentators have wondered whether she was tiring of the grind — only to see her slim down and revive her show’s popularity.

“Over the next couple of days you may hear a lot of speculation about why I’m making this decision now, and that will mostly be conjecture,” she said.

Winfrey choked up once and wiped away a tear as she thanked viewers for having “graciously invited me into your living rooms, your kitchens and into your lives”.

Additional reporting by agencies