Posted on 09/13/2004 10:47:00 AM PDT by Feiny
Chat show queen Oprah Winfrey celebrated the opening of her 19th season on US TV today by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.
We’re calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off,” Winfrey said.
Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 audience members onto the stage. She gave each of them a car – a Pontiac G6.
She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a twelfth car. But when the audience members opened the boxes, each had a set of keys.
“Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!” Winfrey yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage.
The audience members screamed, cried and hugged each other – then followed Winfrey out to the car parking of her Harpo Studios in Chicago to see their Pontiacs, all decorated with giant red bows.
The cars, which retail for £15,500, were donated by Pontiac.
“A little idea grew into a big idea,” said Mary Henige of Pontiac
Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written to the show about their need for a new car. One woman’s young son said she drove a car that “looks like she got into a gunfight” another couple had almost 400,000 miles on their two vehicles.
In other segments on the show, Winfrey surprised a 20-year-old girl who had spent years in foster care and homeless shelters with a four-year college scholarship, a makeover and £6,000 in clothes. And a family with eight foster children who were going to be kicked out of their house were given £72,000 to buy and repair the home.
The Oprah Winfrey Show is syndicated to 212 domestic markets and 109 countries.
Oprah must be a RICHHHHH Republican....:)
This was Verizon with the money converted to US dollars:
CHICAGO - Talk show host Oprah Winfrey celebrated the premiere of her 19th season Monday by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.
"We're calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off," Winfrey said.
Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 audience members onto the stage. She gave each of them a car - a Pontiac G6.
She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a twelfth car. But when the audience members opened the boxes, each had a set of keys.
"Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!" Winfrey yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage.
The audience members screamed, cried and hugged each other - then followed Winfrey out to the parking lot of her Harpo Studios to see their Pontiacs, all decorated with giant red bows.
One woman stepped up onto the frame of a driver's side door, put her head on the roof and hugged the vehicle.
Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written to the show about their need for a new car. One woman's young son said she drove a car that "looks like she got into a gunfight"; another couple had almost 400,000 miles on their two vehicles.
In other segments on the show, Winfrey surprised a 20-year-old girl who had spent years in foster care and homeless shelters with a four-year college scholarship, a makeover and $10,000 in clothes. And a family with eight foster children who were going to be kicked out of the house they were renting were given $130,000 to buy and repair the home.
"The Oprah Winfrey Show," which debuted in 1986, is syndicated to 212 domestic markets and 109 countries.
Say what you want about Oprah, she is a generous woman!
If they had been real expensive....most members could not afford the maintenance, insurance or registration....
That is generous. Instead of blasting the Bush tax cuts, and calling for more taxes on the "wealthy", Oprah gives directly to the needy. Anyway, I'm assuming that she did this with her own money. I skimmed the article, but didn't notice if she did this with her own money, or from donations.
I wonder how many of the recepients realize that they now owe the Feds $4000 to $5000 in additional taxes plus whatever they owe to the states. Personally, I'd rather have the cash.
"The cars, which retail for £15,500, were donated by Pontiac."
Does that make the audience rich now, and are they going to have their taxes increased?
Really?!
How many cars did you give away today?
This week?
This month?
This year?
In your whole life?
"The cars, which retail for £15,500, were donated by Pontiac."
I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but it doesn't look like Oprah purchased the cars.
Meaniwhile, kids in Appalachia, West Virginia, continue to eat heals of bread as their dinner and wear 15 yr old reebok shoes.
Shame on the Oprah.
What "generous"?
How did she get them under the chairs?
It's all part of the new economy where starting this winter all can look forward to prospering in a three pronged economic package: distribution of wealthy republican widows; winning slip and fall court cases; and attending a taping of the OPRAH show.
Her politics might stink, but her generosity is great.
OK what the average income? Could they afford their own cars? Wouldn't it be better to give to people who need them more? She is a fraud.
The cars, which retail for £15,500, were donated by Pontiac.
NOT by the queen of scream - Oprah
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