CHICAGO (AP) - Holding back tears, Oprah Winfrey told her studio
audience Friday that she would end her show in 2011 after a
quarter-century on the air, saying "prayer and careful thought"
led her to her decision.

Winfrey told the audience that she loved "The Oprah Winfrey
Show," that it had been her life and that she knew when it was
time to say goodbye. "Twenty-five years feels right in my bones
and feels right in my spirit," she said.

Winfrey talked about being nervous when the program began in
1986, and thanked audiences who had invited her into their homes
over the past two decades.

"I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of
blessings that would have led me to this moment," she said.

The powerhouse show became the foundation for her
multibillion-dollar media empire, but in the last year, has seen
its ratings slip 7 percent. 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 projected to debut in 2011. OWN is to replace the Discovery
Health Channel and will debut in some 74 million homes.

Winfrey said she and her staff were going to brainstorm ideas
for the final season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and that she
hoped viewers would take "this 18-month ride with me."

In Season 25, "we are going to knock your socks off," she
said. "The countdown to the end of `The Oprah Winfrey Show' starts
now."

CBS Television Distribution, which distributes the show to more
than 200 U.S. markets, held out hope it could continue doing
business with Winfrey, perhaps producing a new show out of its
studios in Los Angeles.

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

Many fans heading into Harpo Studios on Friday morning seemed to
support Winfrey's decision to end the show.

"You always want to end a show when people want more - and not
when people are sick of watching you," said Rebecca Switaj, 31, of
Chicago.

Said Sandra Donaldson, 59, of Indianapolis: "It's time to
elevate to something new. Whatever she does is going to be a
blessing. It's going to be rewarding and eye-opening. Her name
alone opens doors."

Once a local Chicago morning program, the production evolved
into 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 U.S. alone.

"Oprah Winfrey is in a category of her own," said Robert
Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse
University. "This is a great American story and like any great
American story it's supersized."

Fans expressed hope that Winfrey would announce another project
on Friday.

"Oprah, she impacts everybody, her life, the way she gives,"
Shawana Fletcher, 29, of Chicago, said outside Harpo Studios. "I
hope she's not totally done. That's what we're praying."

Winfrey's 24th season opened this year with a bang, as she drew
more than 20,000 fans to Chicago's Magnificent Mile for a block
party with the Black Eyed Peas. She followed with a series of
blockbuster interviews - Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, singer
Whitney Houston and ESPN's Erin Andrews, and just this week, former
Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

As a newcomer, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" chipped away at
talk-show king Phil Donahue's dominance. Later, it turned to
inspiration. The show's coverage ranged from interviews with the
world's celebrities to an honest discussion about Winfrey's weight
struggles.

"As the show evolved, it really kind of dressed up the
neighborhood of the daytime talk show," Thompson said.

In 1986, pianist-showman Liberace gave his final TV interview to
Winfrey, just six weeks before he died. In a 1993 prime-time
special, 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 Winfrey's reaction - "You get a car! You get a car! You
get a car! Everybody gets a car!" - as its $7 million price tag.

The show also became a launching pad for Oprah's Book Club,
which then launched best-sellers. The titles ranged from "Song of
Solomon" and "Paradise" by Toni Morrison to Wally Lamb's "She's
Come Undone" and Elie Wiesel's "Night."

For others, the selection backfired. "A Million Little Pieces"
exploded in sales after Winfrey chose the James Frey memoir in fall
2005. Soon after, it was revealed as a fabricated tale of addiction
and recovery, and Winfrey later chewed out Frey on her show.

"I call her `Queen of the New Consciousness' because she did so
many things to change lives, the books that she promoted," said
hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

The loss of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" would be a blow to CBS
Corp., which earns a percentage of hefty licensing fees from TV
stations that use it - largely ABC affiliates. CBS Chief Executive
Leslie Moonves told analysts two weeks ago that the contract with
the show runs through most of 2011 and "if there's a negative
impact, it wouldn't hit us until '12."

"Oprah's been a force of media and there's really no person you
can look to out there who you could say, `That's the heir
apparent,"' said Larry Gerbrandt, an analyst for Media Valuation
Partners in Los Angeles. Gerbrandt noted many stations build their
schedules around Winfrey's show.

"It's a big loss, but not as huge as it would have been 10
years ago," he said. "However, it still commands the biggest
audience and ABC station competitors are licking their chops."

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

Winfrey started her broadcasting career in Nashville, Tenn., and
Baltimore, Md., before relocating to Chicago in 1984 to host
WLS-TV's morning talk show "A.M. Chicago" - which 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 media
empire. Harpo Studios produces shows hosted by Dr. Phil McGraw and
celebrity chef Rachael Ray. O, The Oprah Magazine was the nation's
7th most popular 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."

Earlier this year, Forbes scored Winfrey's net worth at $2.7
billion.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)