# Oprah on Letterman tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677 "2005-12-02T03:29:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/21 "2005-12-02T23:08:44Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou So yes, it was an orchestrated career move – with her Broadway production of **The Color Purple** opening across the street, I don’t doubt she would have appeared on a talk show hosted by Hitler. [/QUOTE] Yes- because if this thing flops, she’ll never be a success. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/22 "2005-12-03T00:44:29Z")
Maybe she’s just been busy. Maybe it’s because she didn’t know what tack Letterman would take with her. She can handle herself, but if Letterman was going to be sarcastic or try and make comedy out of something that was important to her, she’d have to be sarcastic right back. That’s not how she wants to be perceived. She and Letterman are quite different. She treats all **her** guests with respect, even those who we might think don’t deserve respect (wife beaters, airhead fashion models, child abusers, rich spoiled brats, Tom Cruise). Letterman doesn’t. You’ll never be ambushed on Oprah, unless it’s for a makeover. You can’t trust Letterman. Plus, has she gone on **any** talk shows since she became so popular and powerful? ---
**Author:** ![Barely\_Adequate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58956e/32.png) [@Barely\_Adequate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barely_Adequate)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/23 "2005-12-03T01:14:08Z")
There’s also another anecdote that supposedly feeds into this “feud”. Years ago Oprah and Dave happened to coincidentally be dining at the same restaurant in Florida… very chi-chi, very expensive place. They didn’t really know each other personally and apparently acknowledged each other’s presence with little more than a wave and a smile across the room. When Dave and his party were ready to leave, he instructed the waiter to give Oprah his “tab” and stuck her with his bill. She apparently let it be known that she didn’t appreciate his wise-ass moves and made something of a public issue of the matter, at least among the show-biz crowd. Dave subsequently apologized and made up for the money involved, as well as a token gift to Oprah. Oprah always felt put-upon by her previous appearances with Dave on the NBC show; she didn’t appreciate being the “butt” of his jokes and wasn’t ready to be anyone’s comedic foil. On the other hand, she was among the first to acknowledge the birth of Letterman’s son with a gift of a large number of children’s books. He’s mentioned his appreciation for this gesture numerous times. I really doubt that “feud” properly characterizes the situation between the two of them. It’s more likely a case of two very different personalities with a fair amount of discomfort with and some fear of each other. Dave is notorious as a “loner” and even describes himself as anti-social. He values his own (and his family’s) privacy to the point of being thought by others as being dysfunctional. -Richard ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/24 "2005-12-03T01:21:24Z")
From the _New York Times_ [story](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/arts/television/02oprah.html) about it: > [@](#): > > Afterward, in an interview at the Broadway Theater, Ms. Winfrey said she had stayed away from the Letterman show all these years, partly, because her last appearance on the comedian’s couch was “not the most pleasant.” > > “I felt uncomfortable because I felt like his whole mission was to make me the joke,” she said, “and I’m a smart enough woman to know that I don’t have to go down that road.” I’m with **kunilou** ; I thought it was brilliant TV. Dave has on occasion done these Grand Gestures and managed to not make himself look like an ass (remember the late-80s New Year’s Eve show when he rode out of the theater on a white horse?); I was charmed by his walking her down the street to the premiere of the show. Was it a PR gimmick? Of course it was. I see wrong with that. It would be asinine and offensive for Dave to act like some kind of “outsider” at this point in his career, when he’s one of two dominant figures in late-night TV, and one of the most powerful people in show business (along with Oprah). He’s a big shot, and he knows it, and I think he handles it well and doesn’t try to play “aw-shucks” about it. On preview, I should clarify: He’s changed the nature of his satire over the years. Now he satirizes people who make it big and still try to act like outsiders. (By the way, on an interesting but only semi-related note, Roger Ebert wrote a column a few weeks ago about his relationship with Oprah, called [How I gave Oprah her start](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051116/COMMENTARY/511160301).) ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/25 "2005-12-03T05:45:32Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Plus, has she gone on **any** talk shows since she became so popular and powerful? I saw her on Leno a few times. ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/26 "2005-12-03T06:30:51Z")
> [@jackelope](#): > > (By the way, on an interesting but only semi-related note, Roger Ebert wrote a column a few weeks ago about his relationship with Oprah, called [How I gave Oprah her start](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051116/COMMENTARY/511160301).) Can you help me understand something from the article? I don’t understand what Oprah is asking Roger, and why she chooses King World over ABC: > [@](#): > > At about this time, Oprah and I went out on a date. Well, actually two dates, but the one that made history began when we went to the movies. Afterward, we went to the Hamburger Hamlet for dinner, my treat. > > “I don’t know what to do,” she told me. “The ABC stations want to syndicate my show. So does King World. The problem with syndication is that if your show isn’t successful, you’re off the air in three months. The ABC stations own themselves, so they can keep you on. Which way do you think I should go?” > > I took a napkin and a ballpoint pen, and made some simple calculations. > > Line 1: How much I made in a year for doing a syndicated television show. > > Line 2: Times 2, because Siskel made the same. > > Line 3: Times 2, because Oprah would be on for an hour, instead of half an hour. > > Line 4: Times 5, because she would be on five days a week. > > Line 5: Times 2, because her ratings would be at least twice as big as “Siskel & Ebert.” > > I pushed the napkin across the table. Oprah studied it for 10 seconds. > > “Rog, I’m going with King World,” she said. If ABC can “keep you on” because they “own themselves,” why does she choose King World? And was she asking whether she should go into sydicated television, or just which network to go to? Because if the latter is true, then Roger didn’t really do jack… ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/27 "2005-12-03T07:54:30Z")
The story about the feud that Dave has told dozens of times is that when _The Late Show_ did a week of shows from Chicago many years ago, they invited Oprah to be a guest. She declined (perhaps because of her previous experience on _Late Night_), reportedly telling Dave, “I am _totally_ out of town that week.” Although Dave has never said so, I have always assumed that he knew that she wasn’t really away, but just didn’t want to come back on the show. From this he gathered, and said often, that she hated him. I will now reveal what I have always assumed was the inspiration for the “Uma, Oprah” bit. I recognized it immediately during the Oscar broadcast, but I have never heard anyone else cite the connection to it. Thomas Meehan wrote a short humorous article called “Yma Dream” in the _New Yorker_ in 1962, before going on to write _The Producers_ and _Annie_. In it he recounts a nightmare in which he is hosting a party with a strange collection of guests, celebrities of the day–Yma Sumac, Ava Gardner, Abba Eban, Oona O’Neill, and others–that he must introduce to one another: “Oona, Yma; Oona, Ava; Oona, Abba,” and so forth. It’s very witty. (You can hear Christine Baranski reading it [here.](http://www.wnyc.org/stream/ram.py?file=radiolab/radiolab070904.ra&start=46:24.2&end=57:55.5)) I have little doubt that Dave knew this piece and was doing his own update on it when he saw Uma and Oprah in the first row. For this reason I have always liked the “Uma, Oprah” bit, but apparently I was the only one. I liked Dave (and still do) and enjoyed his hosting of the Oscar show, but there, too, I seem to have been in the minority. At 50 years old, I’ve gotten used to this. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/28 "2005-12-03T08:11:54Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Can you help me understand something from the article? > > I don’t understand what Oprah is asking Roger, and why she chooses King World over ABC: > > If ABC can “keep you on” because they “own themselves,” why does she choose King World? And was she asking whether she should go into sydicated television, or just which network to go to? Because if the latter is true, then Roger didn’t really do jack… I believe syndication is where you basically sell a TV show to a network as opposed to producing a show specifically for a network. Since King World is an independent studio it allows her to syndicate the show to ABC making a bunch of money. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/29 "2005-12-03T17:29:59Z")
One article I read about the “feud” said that there never was any between Letterman and Oprah, that he wouldn’t have joked about her all this time unless there was “love” there. The article pointed out that Letterman never jokes about Leno, with whom there is genuine animosity. As for the King World vs. ABC decision, Ebert pointed out that ABC was the safer choice for Oprah, since they could guarantee her show appeared on their own stations, but King World could not guarantee any stations, but offered the possibility of making a lot more money. And clearly going with King World has been enormously profitable for her. (I remember when Phil Donahue was the dominant talk show host, and he never made anywhere near the kind of money Oprah has made over the years.) ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/30 "2005-12-03T18:38:00Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > The article pointed out that Letterman never jokes about Leno, with whom there is genuine animosity. Say what? Dave jokes about Leno all the time! Of course, it’s most frequently in the form of putting down his own show, but Dave refers to Leno as part of a joke a couple times a week usually. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/31 "2005-12-03T21:06:36Z")
I saw this morning that the Oprah appearance had 13.5 million viewers. About 4 times Dave’s regular audience. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/32 "2005-12-03T21:25:36Z")
That’s because Oprah’s audience is all brainwashed. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/33 "2005-12-03T22:50:44Z")
Did Oprah announce on her show that she’d be appearing on Letterman? Somebody must have pimped it (Inside Edition or Entertainment Tonight) – that’s quite a jump in viewer numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/34 "2005-12-04T18:35:20Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Can you help me understand something from the article? > > I don’t understand what Oprah is asking Roger, and why she chooses King World over ABC: > > If ABC can “keep you on” because they “own themselves,” why does she choose King World? And was she asking whether she should go into sydicated television, or just which network to go to? Because if the latter is true, then Roger didn’t really do jack… She wasn’t asking anything, really. She had mentioned to Roger that she was considering an offer from ABC. He took it upon himself to scribble out the numbers and show them to her. The advantage of syndication is that she still owns the show. The syndicate merely owns a license to sell the show. With ABC, she would have been an employee. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/35 "2005-12-04T19:58:11Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Say what? Dave jokes about Leno all the time! Of course, it’s most frequently in the form of putting down his own show, but Dave refers to Leno as part of a joke a couple times a week usually. Around the height of my Letterman-watching (circa 1998) Dave would rarely mention Leno. I recall hearing one reference to him and being somewhat shocked to hear it. Nowadays, it seems like he jokes about Leno more often. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677/36 "2005-12-04T20:16:33Z")
On Letterman’s first show back from heart surgery, one of his monologues jokes explained that he had a quadruple bypass (or whatever) surgery… “A bypass… that’s also, coincidentally, what happen with me before with the \Tonight Show\.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oprah-on-letterman-tonight/333677.md?page=1)