TV Talk Show Billionairess On Show（在线收听）

TV Talk Show Billionairess On Show

Oprah Gail Winfrey, born Kosciusko, Mississippi, January 29th 1954, former Miss Fire Prevention, and Miss Black Nashville 1971, now she's the queen of daytime television, a multi-media ¹⁾mogul and billionairess, an enviable title that most celebs can't claim. Sounds like she's got it all. Now, but the Patti Sellers of Fortune magazine sat down with Oprah, and tells us, she wasn't exactly born with a silver spoon in her mouth. 

Sellers: She grew up in Mississippi, dirt poor, without running water...

The fact is, she didn't even own her first pair of shoes until age six...hard to imagine. But, what Oprah lacked in wealth, she made up for in ambition—a star quality, according to Ken Baker, at Us Weekly.

Baker: So, she starts off making a hundred bucks a week when she's seventeen, working for a radio station. Just two years later, Oprah's already the youngest anchor in television. She’s making fifteen ²⁾grand a year, which at the time, wasn't so bad.

Fifteen thousand dollars! Hey, that's less than one percent of what she makes now. Anyway, she made headlines and that's when the Windy City made Oprah an offer she couldn't refuse. Yeah, a two hundred and thirty thousand dollar contract in 1984, to host the local morning show called, AM Chicago. 

Sellers: She was ³⁾recruited to Chicago, by a man named Dennis Swanson. In her first meeting with him, she said to him, "Are you concerned about anything?" He said, "No, why?" And she said, "Well, do you know I'm black?" And he said, “Yes, I realize that." And she said, "Do you...do you...do you know I'm overweight?" And he said, "Yeah." And he said, “Listen, if I wanted someone ⁴⁾glamorous, I would have brought in someone completely different. I want you to be you.”

Hmm. A ⁵⁾backhanded compliment? No. He meant Oprah was someone everyone could relate to. Well, it worked. Almost overnight, AM Chicago became The Oprah Winfrey Show... and the ratings ⁶⁾went through the roof. So, now she's a local celebrity... with a taste for the finer things in life.

Sellers: ...gets the AM Chicago deal, she's making $230,000 a year. What does she do? She buys herself a ⁷⁾mint, $42,000 Jaguar...

While all this is going on, Oprah starts her own production company called "Harpo." Yeah! That's Oprah, spelled backwards. You got it. And now she's primed to make a sweet chunk of change off the syndication deal. The very first season in syndication, the show made a hundred and twenty-five million dollars. And Oprah took home 25% of the gross.

Sellers: ...which means that Oprah earned an estimated thirty-one million dollars between 1987 and 1988. This made her the highest paid performer in show biz.

Now she's ⁸⁾sitting pretty as the first woman in television to ever produce and host her own television show. The Oprah Winfrey Show has turned "Harpo Inc." into a multi-million dollar company...and Oprah's become a national ⁹⁾phenomenon, according to Lynette Rice at Entertainment Weekly.

Rice: You know the talk show has done, what The Oprah Winfrey Show has done...Twenty-two million people tune in to watch this woman talk every day. And when she talks, people listen.

Not only do they listen...they read.

Sellers: She started the Oprah Book Club. Since 1996, forty-six books, each of the books that she's mentioned, have become an instant best seller.

Women and men...although some won't admit it, can't seem to get enough of the daytime ¹⁰⁾diva, who is well on her way to becoming one of the richest women in the world. Yes, thanks to some brilliant financial planning.

Sellers: She met a man named Jeff Jacobs, who was an entertainment lawyer in Chicago, and he said to her, "You need to own yourself" and he became her guardian, her agent and manager. So, the money that comes into Oprah and Harpo, she keeps it all.

Now, I don't mean to be a buzzkill here, but not everything Oprah touches turns to gold. True, true. She did lose a bundle on the film "Beloved." That hurts for a minute! But, Oprah ¹¹⁾bounced back in a big way with O.

Sellers: In 2000, her magazine was named the best launch in history, with a circulation of two point five million and it makes over $150 million a year.

So she's making money ¹²⁾hand over fist. Right. Today, roughly three hundred million a year for her television show. Add to that everything else that falls under the umbrella of Harpo Inc, TV movies, O magazine, and her Oxygen Cable Network...all told, her multi-media empire now generates $575 million a year...which puts her personal wealth in the billions. Wow—!

注释：

1) mogul [5mEu^l] n. 显要人物；有权势的人

2) grand [^rAnd] n. <美俚>一千美元，一千

3) recruit [ri5kru:t] v. 征募，招收

4) glamorous [5^lAmErEs] a.富有魅力的，迷人的

5) backhanded compliment 貌似恭维实为挖苦的话

6) go through the roof （物价等）暴涨，飞涨

7) mint [mint] a. 最新的，最近的

8) sit pretty 处于有利地位；过舒服日子

9) phenomenon [fi5nCminEn] n. 现象

10) diva [5di:vE] n. 歌剧中的首席女主角，这里比喻奥普拉的主导地位

11) bounce back 卷土重来，（遭受挫折后）很快恢复

12) hand over fist 迅速大量地