The Oprah Winfrey Show (often simply referred to as Oprah) is a United States syndicated talk show, hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey, and is the highest-rated talk show in American television history. It is currently the longest-running daytime television talk show in the United States, having run nationally (from 1984-1986 is was Chicago area only show AM Chicago) since September 8, 1986, for over 22 seasons and 3,000 episodes (as of September 10, 2007). The show is renewed through 2011, but in a 2007 interview with Larry King, Oprah said that in 2011, she will not renew her contract, thus ending the show . The show, a production of Harpo Productions, is the last program currently on the air to be distributed by King World (only the name is mentioned in the Friday show's distribution credits), even though the latter company has been absorbed by CBS Television Distribution.

Oprah has been included in Time magazine's shortlist of the best television series of the twentieth century in 1998, and it made the top 50 of TV Guide's countdown of the greatest American shows of all time in 2002.

The show is highly influential, especially with women, and many of its topics penetrate into American pop-cultural consciousness. While early episodes of the show followed a Phil Donahue-style exploration of sensationalistic social issues, Oprah eventually transformed her series into a more positive, spiritually uplifting experience marked by book clubs, celebrity interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events.

The show airs on most CBS- and ABC-owned stations in the United States (as well as other stations contracted to KingWorld and its CBS Television Distribution successor), CTV in Canada and on Diva TV in the United Kingdom.

The show began broadcasting in High Definition beginning with its 2008-09 season premiere episode on September 8, 2008, becoming one of the first nationally-syndicated daytime talk shows to do so. That season premiere was broadcast from Chicago's Millennium Park and featured over 175 athletes from the U.S. Olympic Team including gold-medalists Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, and Kobe Bryant.

Wildest Dreams

One of the show's features in recent years has been the "Wildest Dreams" tour, which fulfills the dreams of people reported to her by producers, found mostly from viewers who write in to the show, be the dream a new house, an encounter with a favorite performer, or a guest role on a popular TV show.

During her nineteenth season premiere (fall 2004), Winfrey surprised her entire audience by giving them each a Pontiac G6. Winfrey famously exclaimed, "You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!" It was named as one of the greatest television moments in history by TV Guide. Although Winfrey may be given credit for giving the cars away, they were donated to her by General Motors as a publicity stunt. In 2005, Tina Turner guest starred, allowing Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman to fulfill her Wildest Dream of singing backup to Turner. Another included a man named David Caruso who lost 300 pounds after weighing 525 pounds. He came on the show in 2003 and told Oprah that one of his wishes was to sit in a Porsche. Minutes later, a white 2004 Porsche Boxster S (worth about $63,000) was given to him. Winfrey named this one of her 20 favorite moments on a special DVD set.