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There were no free cars or vacations. No favorite things or makeovers. No celebrity guests on stage — though there were plenty in the audience.
The finale of Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, taped Tuesday and aired Wednesday, was all about the one thing that made her a billion-dollar success: the unique connection she made with millions of viewers for 25 years. In what she called her “love letter” to fans, she made clear that to her, all those TV friendships went both ways.
“Something in me connected with each of you in a way that allowed me to see myself in you and you in me,” Winfrey said. “I listened and grew, and I know you grew along with me.”
Winfrey was the only person on stage with little background music and short flashback clips. The show went to commercials with “Twenty-Five Years,” a soft song that musician Paul Simon wrote and recorded for her.
She called fans her “safe harbor” and became teary eyed when reflecting on her upbringing in rural Mississippi.
“It is no coincidence that a lonely little girl,” Winfrey said, choking up, “who felt not a lot of love, even though my parents and grandparents did the best they could, it is no coincidence that I grew up to feel a genuine kindness, affection, trust and validation from millions of you all over the world.”
Oprah Winfrey perfectly understands the power—and potential pain—of her name. As a child in Milwaukee she watched Romper Room, whose host, Miss Nancy, peered into her “magic mirror” and greeted her young viewers. “I can see Susie and Jimmy and Bobby,” Miss Nancy might say, eliciting yelps of delight from children at home. Not little Oprah. “I used to stand there in front of the black-and-white Magnavox thinking, Maybe today?” she tells me. She would move from one side of the TV set to the other, “thinking Miss Nancy would see me. Waiting for her to say hello to Oprah. Of course that never happened. She was handed a list of names and saw nobody!” Oprah reminisces slowly, hands tucked protectively under her legs. “I would have to say that my deepest feeling about myself growing up, the word that would best describe how I felt, would be lonely. And alone. It added to that feeling that there’s nobody like me.” She shifts into the present, grinning. “Now,” she adds playfully, “that’s a pretty good feeling!” 
