Who is Oprah Winfrey? wiki
How Oprah Winfrey Became A Billionaire: American talk show host, television producer, actor, author, and philanthropist Oprah Gail Winfrey is also known by her stage name, Oprah. She is most known for her Chicago-based talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired from 1986 to 2011 and was nationally syndicated for 25 years. She was known as the “Queen of All Media,” the richest African-American of the 20th century, the first and only black billionaire in history, and the most influential black philanthropist in American history. She was occasionally rated as the most powerful woman in the world in 2007.
What is Oprah Winfrey’s net worth?
| Net Worth: | $3.5 Billion |
|---|---|
| Age: | 68 |
| Born: | January 29, 1954 |
| Gender: | Female |
| Height: | 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in) |
| Country of Origin: | United States of America |
| Source of Wealth: | Professional Talk Show Host/Actress |
| Last Updated: | September 9, 2022 |
How Oprah Winfrey Became A Billionaire
In order to negotiate a new contract, Oprah sacked her agent and sent Jeffrey Jacobs back to King World/ABC. King World declined to resume talks. This rejection would prove to be incredibly fortunate. King World allowed Jeffrey Jacobs and Oprah to unintentionally start an empire rather than just handing over a small portion of the show’s syndication points.
While discussions stalled, Oprah and Jeffrey started HARPO Productions on their own.
King World was in a tough position. At the time Oprah was attracting record viewer numbers in Chicago and national syndication was looking like a slam dunk. They should have relented and given Oprah a cut of the backend. It would have cost them a few million per year.
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When King World eventually returned, Oprah had changed her request for a percentage of the backend. When she revealed that she intended to produce the show herself, King World officials were horrified. She and Jeffrey would cover all of the show’s production costs through HARPO Productions at HARPO Studios, and they would then pay King World a predetermined sum to syndicate the program nationally. The paying worker was now King World.
90% of HARPO belonged to Oprah. Jeffrey had 10% of it.
Next, Oprah and Jeffrey negotiated a much larger overall deal with ABC that included movie productions, a magazine, books, and, most importantly, the right to launch other TV shows under her production umbrella. All production for these shows would take place at her 3.5-acre HARPO campus.
Not just that.
Oprah and Jeffrey even went so far as to discuss buying a piece of King World Productions. Because of this agreement, Oprah would profit from all of King World’s productions, including Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.
For $2.5 billion in equity, CBS acquired King World in 1999. Oprah owned 1% of all of CBS after the deal was completed. By way of a transaction she struck with ABC in the middle of the 1990s, she also came to hold a sizeable portion of Disney stock.
Oprah would go on to earn several BILLIONS of dollars while her 1980s talk show colleagues Sally Jesse Raphael, Phil Donahue, and Jerry Springer would go on to earn tens of millions of dollars through traditional contracts.
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| Oprah Net Worth Pathways | |
| Year | Net Worth |
| 1985 | $500,000 |
| 1989 | $1,000,000 |
| 1995 | $500,000,000 |
| 2000 | $1,000,000,000 |
| 2007 | $2,000,000,000 |
| 2014 | $3,000,000,000 |
| 2019 | $3,100,000,000 |
| 2020 -2022 | $3,500,000,000 |
When Oprah first crossed into billionaire status in 1999/2000, she became America’s first black female billionaire. Around this time she was earning $300 million per year producing her own show as well as Dr. Phil’s and Rachael Ray’s shows.
At the time of writing, Oprah is the fourth-richest celebrity on the planet. The only billionaire celebrities who have her beat are Kanye West ($6.6 billion), Steven Spielberg (with $7.5 billion), and George Lucas (with $10 billion) according to celebrity net worth
Oprah Winfrey is the richest self-made woman in America.
