Oprah Winfrey brings curtain down on her talk show

LONDON - The Oprah Winfrey Talk Show will come to an end in 2011 after more than two decades on air, BBC reported Friday.

From her early career as Nashville’s first African-American TV correspondent to global superstar, Oprah Winfrey has well and truly conquered the US.

Since her TV career began back in 1973, 55-year-old Winfrey and her talk show have won more than 40 Emmys.

The emotionally-charged, self-help nature of the show draws viewers from around the world and remains the US highest-rated talk show - though audiences have slumped in recent years.

She can attract the biggest names in show business, and her intimate interviewing style often draws responses to highly personal issues.

Tom Cruise famously declared his love for Katie Holmes while leaping about on Winfrey’s sofa, but he has also spoken candidly about Scientology and his divorce from Nicole Kidman.

Earlier this year, harangued reality show star Susan Boyle chose to bear her soul on the Oprah show - rather than face the British media.

And singer Whitney Houston opened a new season of the chat show, with a comeback appearance that followed years of drug addiction.

Winfrey’s own confessional approach has also won the show legions of fans. Early in her career, she revealed she had been sexually abused as a child, and she has spoken openly of her ongoing struggle with weight.

She is equally vocal about her private life, explaining that she chose never to have children “because I wasn’t mothered well”.

“I never felt compelled to do it. I always felt that I don’t even know how to do that,” she has said.