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Oprah Winfrey Says She Could Use A Talk Show Right About Now

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 08:39 PST, Aug 27, 2016

Oprah Winfrey says she doesn’t “miss” her days as a talk show titan, but that she wouldn’t mind having a talk show forum for some of today’s big news stories. In a new interview posted by Entertainment Weekly, Oprah admitted she misses being able to talk about big headlines in front of a nationwide TV audience.

Winfrey revealed she first felt the void in 2012 as former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s Penn State sex abuse scandal played out in the headlines.

“The first time that happened was with Sandusky,” Oprah told EW.“I thought, ‘If only I had a show, I would be able to [talk] about it.”

More recently, Oprah feels it with the presidential election looming.

“Many times during this election, I thought, ‘If only I had this show, I could explain what is happening.'”

Oprah Winfrey wrapped her Emmy-winning daytime talk show in 2011 after 25 years on the air, but she clarified that she doesn’t miss her daily chatfest in a sentimental way.

“It holds a space with me that is me and will forever be me until my last breath and beyond. But ‘miss’ is not the word,” Winfrey explained.

“I cherish everything it represented. There is not a place I can go that people don’t say what that show meant to them and what my being on that show did for them and how it made them who they are. I raised them. They came home after school and watched. They watched it with their mothers. They left their husbands because of it. They found their husbands because of it. They don’t beat their kids because of it. I cherish it.”

From 1986 to 2011, Oprah famously logged 4,561 episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show. She gave away cars and trips and many Favorite Things, but for her final episode, she gave her audience her years of wisdom via a “love letter” that explained all that she had learned over the course of her career.

Two years after she taped her final Oprah Winfrey Show episode, Oprah returned to her old studio for an appearance on The Steve Harvey Show. According to Us Weekly, Oprah told the studio audience that she really missed interacting with viewers on a daily basis.

“I got a little choked up seeing you guys today,” Winfrey told Harvey’s audience.

“Because what I really miss is the camaraderie with the audience every day…I wanted to keep rising and to leave while I was still rising. When I look back at the body of work, those of you who watched us for years, it’s astounding.”

While she no longer has a forum to talk everything from party planning to politics, Oprah does have her own network. These days, Winfrey spends time producing, and sometimes starring in, shows for the OWN Network. And she has even crowned a new talk show queen and king. During a 2013 appearance on Live With Kelly and Michael, Oprah Winfrey passed the torch to daytime co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan

“You guys are the reigning king and queen,” Winfrey told the daytime TV duo. “You are. Congratulations. Because I’m in the biz and I have other shows on the air that I’m not on, I still get the numbers every day and I see that you guys are at the top.”

Of course, Michael Strahan has since moved on to Good Morning America, but it’s not every day that someone gets a coronation from Oprah Winfrey.

Take a look at the video below to see Oprah Winfrey giving Jimmy Kimmel her opinion on the upcoming presidential election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aqSxnw0ZpM

[Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for 2016 Essence Festival]

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