NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Oprah Winfrey, the esteemed broadcaster,
producer, actress and philanthropist, will become a special
contributor to 60 MINUTES, the #1 news broadcast in television, it
was announced today by the news magazine's executive producer,
Jeff Fager.
Ms. Winfrey will make her first appearance on CBS News'
legendary Sunday night broadcast this fall.
"There is only one Oprah
Winfrey," said Fager. "She has achieved excellence in
everything she has touched. Her body of work is extraordinary,
including thousands of interviews with people from all walks of
life. She is a remarkable and talented woman with a level of
integrity that sets her apart and makes her a perfect fit for 60
MINUTES. I am thrilled that she will be bringing her unique and
powerful voice to our broadcast."
"I've been a big admirer of 60 MINUTES since my days as a young
reporter," said Winfrey. "I'm so excited and proud to join forces
with this historic news program, which for me represents the
bastion of journalistic storytelling. At a time when people are so
divided, my intention is to bring relevant insight and perspective,
to look at what separates us, and help facilitate real
conversations between people from different backgrounds."
Oprah Winfrey is an American original who has
established during her storied career an enduring connection with
the American people. For 25 years, Winfrey was host of her
award-winning talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which was the
highest-rated television program of its kind in history.
While hosting and appearing on the #1 syndicated show, Winfrey
founded her own production company, Harpo Productions. Under her
leadership, Harpo developed many successful syndicated television
programs, including "Dr. Phil," "The Dr. Oz Show" and
"Rachael Ray," among many others,
plus motion pictures under her Harpo Films banner, including the
recent award-winning "Selma" in which she also had a featured role.
In 1985, she co-starred in Steven Spielberg's "The Color
Purple," where she was nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actress. She earned critical
acclaim in "Lee Daniels' The Butler"
and will appear in the upcoming HBO movie "The Immortal Life of
Henrietta Lacks" and the Disney
feature film "A Wrinkle in Time."
In 2011, in partnership with Discovery Communications, Winfrey
founded OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and serves as its chairman and
CEO. OWN has become one of the fastest growing cable networks for
women, achieving its highest rated and most watched year in network
history in 2016.
Winfrey founded O, The Oprah Magazine, which
FORTUNE magazine declared the most successful start-up in
that industry's history and recently debuted her first cookbook
memoir, Food, Health and Happiness, which reached #1 on the
New York Times Bestsellers
List. She joined the Weight Watchers board of directors in
2015.
Winfrey is also one of the most active philanthropists in the
world, donating more than $20 million
to the creation of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African
American History and Culture. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy
for Girls in South Africa will
celebrate its 10th anniversary this year, of which she
has contributed more than $100
million to provide education to academically gifted girls
from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In 2013, Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom by President Barack Obama, the nation's
highest civilian honor.
About 60 Minutes
60 MINUTES, the most successful
television broadcast in history, began its
49th season in September
2016. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports,
interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news,
the broadcast begun in 1968 is still a hit in 2017, consistently
making Nielsen's Top 10 list week after week. Today, 60 MINUTES
continues its dominance as the number-one news program, drawing an
average of approximately 14 million viewers per week – almost twice
the audience of its nearest network news magazine competitor. The
average audience for a 60 MINUTES broadcast still dwarfs the
biggest audiences drawn by any and all cable news
programs.
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SOURCE CBS Corporation