Posted on 05/19/2003 5:52:37 PM PDT by Brian S
TV talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has had second thoughts about retiring and will stay on air until at least 2008.
The US star has extended her contract with King World Productions by two more years, it was announced today.
The deal will take her through the 2007-2008 television season, and she has also agreed to make more shows over the next few years than previously planned.
At her last contract extension, Winfrey, 49, said she would quit her show after the 2005-2006 season.
Today, she said: "It's fulfilling being able to do this kind of television, and I believe continuing to have a voice and a platform to speak to the world is still the right thing to do."
After a few years of decline, ratings for The Oprah Winfrey Show have increased in the US this year. She has also watched her one-time protege, Dr Phil McGraw, start his own successful talk show.
Despite Winfrey's threat to call it quits, Roger King, the CEO of King World, said he had never stopped asking her to stay. He said he sensed a change after Winfrey went to Africa last year to help the poor.
"I think she came back reinvigorated, knowing that her vision is right, and she wants to stay with it," he said.
The star had left open the possibility of continuing beyond 2008, he added.
Bill Carroll, of the Katz Television Group and an expert in syndication, said: "Everyone who thought they were going to be the successor to Oprah is kind of forced to wait on the sidelines now.
"Or they can knock her off. Conventional wisdom says that's virtually impossible."
Winfrey had planned to cut back from 145 original shows a year to 100 in 2004 and 75 in 2005. Now she will do 130 shows per year for the last four years of the deal, King said.
Tim Bennett, president of Winfrey's company, Harpo Productions, said an increase in ratings among young people for the first time in several years played a part in Winfrey's decision.
"The most important thing is she feels like she is truly making a difference and that the audience she is speaking to is listening in substantial numbers."
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