When did Oprah "Jump the Shark" for you?
Posted by Jack0Trade@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 225 comments
Saw this TIL and it got me thinking about all the misinformation she knowingly and willingly spread. I grew up with Oprah as this stalwart black woman who overcame Chicago media politics and championed small people.
https://old.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1thpnt1/til_that_in_2003_episode_of_the_oprah_winfrey/
Hearing about this as part of the cohort she was debasing and knowing it was BS was the eye opener. Phil (2002) and Oz (also 2003) reappearances were just like adding shit to the dumpster by the time their true nature was revealed. Her network always felt like a Lifetime Network rebrand.
BananasPineapple05@reddit
I can't point to a single event, but I went from religiously watching her show every day after school to getting annoyed that she was always pushing some new product or some new snake-oil salesman as a new Messiah.
It's only years after the fact that I got retroactively disgusted about her relentless pursuit of outing gay people, questioning young women for being imperfect and letting complete wackos jump all over her couch with nary a bit of pushback.
CMButterTortillas@reddit
Remember “The Secret”?
You want a bike? Just think about it and voila, your new bike is here!
Oprah was the original tik-tok influencer. And she peddled some real bullshit.
Gian_Luck_Pickerd@reddit
I'd forgotten about The Secret until you brought it up. Then I remembered this video from 2007 making fun of it
https://youtu.be/vLZ_GXmUTOM?si=N_-P2R00d6tPBw5s
EarlGrayTea-Hawt@reddit
If you haven't seen it, check out the Bling Ring documentary on Netflix, there's a whole thing with The Secret in there, it's hilarious and horrible all at once.
Gian_Luck_Pickerd@reddit
I don't have Netflix but I'll look for it the next time I sail the high seas
randomwellwisher@reddit
It was definitely The Secret for me. Woman, please.
chinacat2u2@reddit
🤫
Odd-Tie1555@reddit
Interesting that you mentioned her out and gay people. I thought I'd keep this to myself, but once I read the OP question, I immediately thought of Luther Vandross appearing on her show after having had a stroke and a little before his untimely death. Oprah referred to him as diva"you've always been a diva." having had a stroke Luther could not express himself well however he had a look of shock and disappointment. As if he were saying, I can't believe you've done this. I've never doubted myself so why are you attempting to?
blood_bones_hearts@reddit
Same.
Shilling for WW was another big ick moment for me.
Then her and The Rock Johnson (as my neice calls him 😆) trying to raise money for Hawaii when they both own massive chunks of land there and have the wealth to help all on their own without asking the "normies" to give too.
Just shitty rich person things.
wrathofthewhatever2@reddit
I’m not defending Oprah here, but I do have a lot of friends that got a check each month from that fund raising her and the rock did. sure, they could have just funded it themselves serval times over, but at least my friends got some help for a couple years. (I do live on Maui)
blood_bones_hearts@reddit
I'm glad to see that they at minimum followed through and your friends got some help. Should've just built them new houses but.... 😉
wrathofthewhatever2@reddit
Yeah that would have been sweet, but actually between insurance and the 4 billion dollar settlement with the power company, most costs for home rebuilds are being covered, it’s just taking years. Maybe, 10-15% of homes have been rebuilt and no commercial use buildings yet, and none of the settlement money has actually been distributed yet. I’m actually at a red light in Lahaina now, lots of construction but too slow. The Oprah fund did help people with incidentals that insurance wouldn’t cover like new clothes and stuff.
desertdweller2011@reddit
didn’t she also have ellen on after she came out and made ellen sit there and be confronted by audience members who were given a mic for their homophobia ? horrible
Grammarhead-Shark@reddit
I recall that.
I remember some random yokel, and Ellen's response was really good.
It is weird, part of my brain wants to think the 90s where more progressive and forward thinking then they actually where, but a lot of it was still mired in a lot of conservative mentality.
GenericRedditor1937@reddit
I don't remember that, but maybe it was the genesis for Ellen's own bullying behavior.
ParticularGift2504@reddit
Yeah. In the moment, I side-eyed some stuff, but it’s only been with the gift of earned wisdom and hindsight that I really feel a way about how she’s shaped current reality.
LilMushboom@reddit
Platforming hacks and shills like Dr Phil and Mehmet Oz
Jack0Trade@reddit (OP)
This almost sent me down a rabbit hole seeing all 3 happened within a year.
LilMushboom@reddit
Yeah I feel like she reached a point of chasing shock & controversy for ratings and stopped caring about the impact on her audience.
jesusmansuperpowers@reddit
She reverted to that. Her show was just marginally classier than Donahue in the early days.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
And even Phil Donahue did hack behavior for attention. Remember when he ruined the Academy Awards in 1993?
Insomniac_80@reddit
No, how did it happen?
LilMushboom@reddit
Yeah there were just a few good years in the middle I guess
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
Even Jerry Springer used to be a more serious show. I believe it was after some threats that he started doing trash TV stuff.
someguyfromsk@reddit
Yeah if I had to pinpoint an exact moment, it would be when Dr Phil started on her show. I just never liked him, he always felt slimy.
skywalkerRCP@reddit
This is it.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Yep
Jack0Trade@reddit (OP)
the Ok Boomer prototype
Shortbus_Playboy@reddit
This was it for me.
Swansong80@reddit
This is the answer, those two hacks are absolutely awful human beings.
stargarnet79@reddit
Yeah I remember the advice given to losing weight was to just put down the fork.
PopularSet4776@reddit
I agree.
They were popular dure to Charisma but when it was pointed out they were unqualified or spreading misinformation she had the opportunity to course correct but chose the money instead.
FrozenOcean420@reddit
Which worked pretty well solely judging by her Hawaiian estate
PopularSet4776@reddit
Oh yeah she became I believe one of the few if any self made female - minority female billionares.
But perhaps people are not wrong that you have to engage in some immoral actions to become a billionaire.
MandatoryFun@reddit
She was always shit.
H3lls_B3ll3@reddit
Tom Cruise
ellecamille@reddit
Back in the oughts I met a few people who met her and said she was horribly rude. Behind the Bastards did a good series on her. It’s a shame because she really is a brilliant woman.
LadyVioletLuna@reddit
“Dr’s” Oz and Phil. I never liked her though so the introduction to these two chuckleheads was another reason to continue disliking her. She’s too narcissistic.
WLH7M@reddit
When she sicked all those bees on her audience. Who does that?
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
WHAT?!
WLH7M@reddit
Ok_Marketing_476@reddit
Waaaay back in the 90's, I watched that interview with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane when they were promoting the Birdcage and she just kept pushing at Nathan until Robin did one of his his famous distractions. I'd never noticed her invasiveness before, but seeing his discomfort and her disregard just did it.
Ok_Marketing_476@reddit
For the record, I didn't know he was publicly closeted at the time, just that he was uncomfortable.
I had pretty good gaydar for a straight kid and knew it was impolite to mention it unless folks brought it up themselves.
I still live by that....try not to make assumptions about people's personal lives and don't pry. If people want you to know about their lives, they'll generally tell you.
ialsohaveadobro@reddit
He wasn't out? I'm surprised. I could swear I knew he was gay when Birdcage came out, and I know that wouldn't have been from my shit-tier gaydar.
MyVoiceIsElevating@reddit
TIL that he’s gay.
Ambitious_Cover339@reddit
He’s said in interviews since that he wasn’t living in the closet, but he wasn’t prepared to discuss his personal life publicly during the Oprah interview
BoiledDenimForRoxie@reddit
You seem reasonable. We hate that.
SmokeyOSU@reddit
where'd I put my torch.....
PurplePenguinCat@reddit
Yeah! If you're reasonable, you can't be in our generation's clubhouse!
boston_homo@reddit
That’s a good way to handle things.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
👏👏👏
zenerNoodle@reddit
That interview was what caused my mother to stop watching the show. She'd been a big fan up until then. I remember her telling us about it at dinner, and she was just enraged. As far as I know, she never watched Oprah again after that.
CheesaLouisa@reddit
Super Soul Sunday. Too much!
Creative-Wasabi3300@reddit
I would watch her show every day after school because my mom absolutely adored Oprah. What really turned me off her was that one day she had a woman on who was a teacher and had posed for some explicit photos that ended up online. I can’t remember all of the details. Anyway, it’s not like the woman went on Oprah show because she was proud of the explicit photos. She was actually embarrassed by them instead of being compassionate because the woman had made a dumb choice. Oprah really raked her over the Coles about the pictures. That wouldn’t have been so bad if she didn’t absolutely excuse celebrities for having done far worse things— like she had Julia Roberts on after Julia had wrecked someone’s marriage, and of course, because they were both celebrities she treated her like a goddess. The fact that she was a homewrecker never even came up. Yet she treated this poor woman, a non-celebrity, with utter contempt, simply for having some photos taken, which weren’t in great taste. That was the first time I realized Oprah was a phony. One raw for her celebrity friends another rule for everyday people.
rarepinkhippo@reddit
In my memory she was really cruel when interviewing Mia Farrow about Woody’s (alleged but I believe Dylan) abuse of her daughter (in a way that felt like she was blaming Mia for what Woody did, though admittedly it has been years since I saw this interview and I don’t remember the specifics well). I’ve been an Oprah hater since then and she’s only gotten worse.
MJblowsBubbles@reddit
AM Chicago
broke_fit_dad@reddit
ParsnipFull1401@reddit
Her reaction to the OJ verdict.
VinylHighway@reddit
Oprah is literally responsible for the anti-vax status of the USA by giving Jenny McCarthy a platform.
darbyboi22@reddit
Playboy first tho
VinylHighway@reddit
Oprah is responsible for playboy?
Haemwich@reddit
Was it just Oprah? I could have sworn The View had Jenny on for the same thing.
ExpensiveWords4u@reddit
I think Oprah was the first, which legitimizes it almost for the public cuz ppl blindly trusted her. But I do think Jenny went on a press tour after that & I believe I saw her on the view also
Ambitious_Cover339@reddit
Jenny was a cohost on The View
VinylHighway@reddit
I don't know but wouldn't surprise me
rapturaeglantine@reddit
I just posted this also. My only child was born in 2006 and my mom was starting to say shit like, "I think you should space the vaccines out more for your next one." I was like dude mom, I like her too (I legitimately loved her book on pregnancy) but this is a really bold claim? But my mom was like no, it's on Oprah, this is real, this is something we should take seriously.
stormer1_1@reddit
TRULY
Odd-Tie1555@reddit
The cast of the movie crash went onto the Oprah show, rapper Ludacris was there with childlike enthusiasm. She took this as an opportunity to tell him how she did not like his music, this episode was not about his music. She embarrassed him in front of his counterparts. You could see the sadness grow across his face. Meanwhile, she let everyone know that she like Jay-Z and his music and Jay-Z would often mention her in his rap songs. How hypocritical I thought Jay-Z has many vulgar lyrics. They are elite at the least. I'm not particularly fond at all.
Colonial13@reddit
I’ve never watched a single episode of Oprah, but having a job in a bookstore in the mid to late 90’s when her book of the month club was huge made me hate her indirectly.
Worried_Internet_912@reddit
I bought a few books she recommended and they were just trash..
Jack0Trade@reddit (OP)
I worked at Petsmart. That groaning ball dog toy end cap had a quarter inch of dust on them before she cleared it in 1 day.
madlibs13@reddit
When she started the Book Club
PoorMansCornCob@reddit
The grilling of Mary Kate & Ashley about their weight. There were issues before that but seeing those two try desperately to answer professionally while a woman twice their age kept asking about their eating disorder was disturbing. Especially where this interviewer had come up through media and pushing back against all stereotypes including her own weight struggles and disordered eating. It felt like a real slap in the face to every woman who supported Oprah and felt seen. From there it seemed like the the hop over to shilling quacks and products was incredibly fast. It's like she stopped being a person at all and only a living brand.
clandahlina_redux@reddit
This is what did it for me. Especially gross now that we know Mary-Kate was dealing with an eating disorder.
Dean_Proffitt@reddit
I remember my mom occasionally watching Oprah, she has never been a hardcore fan. I distinctly remember two episodes that I happened to be in the room for when I was 12. One was talking about public bathrooms and how the first stall was usually the cleanest. The other one discussed spontaneous combustion, and had what I now know are totally false. The spontaneous combustion episode led me down a path of extreme anxiety about death occurring in a completely unknowing and uncontrollable way. As a grew older and my anxiety disorder calmed down, I realized the dumb ass shit she was pedaling, even though she was considered god tier at the time. Soon after this realization the Million Little Pieces scandal happened and that felt like the jump the shark moment for the masses.
LeiaO315@reddit
When she wheeled out that wagon full of animal fat to show the amount of weight she’d lost. That was 1988.
munistadium@reddit
Visited Hawaii. Heard from locals
somecoolname42@reddit
I knew she was full of shit when she was talking about rainbow parties in the 90s. Maybe it happened at a party she went to at Harvey Weinstein's house, but most teenage girls weren't doing that.
Smurfblossom@reddit
I don't remember these involving lipstick at all. At my school there were girls who had different colored bracelets based on sex acts they did with boys.
maggie320@reddit
I was never a “fan”, but the thing that pissed me off was her pushing that guy who wrote A Million Little Pieces which turned out to be fabricated.
Smurfblossom@reddit
I also remember follow up episode after the truth came out and she tried to call him out but the damage was done.
Jack0Trade@reddit (OP)
I forgot about that. So wild to consider that as scandal in 2026.
Haemwich@reddit
Gave us a great episode of Always Sunny
flatulating_ninja@reddit
And South Park.
Sorry_Challenge_4179@reddit
A million little fibers by Dr Stephen Mctowelie
maggie320@reddit
I didn’t know that was a thing. Now I’ve got to watch.
72_Suburbs@reddit
The book is actually pretty good, fiction or not. The annoying part is that Oprah helped make a mountain out of a molehill with the follow-up frenzy.
silentsnak3@reddit
I read that book and, if I remember correctly, it was pretty good.
Learning later that its was all fiction, yea that pissed me off. It was a good book in its on right.
TransportationOk657@reddit
Grammarhead-Shark@reddit
Oprah in Texas.
It all went downhill from there.
mythrowaweighin@reddit
When she accused Hermes employees of being racist because they wouldn’t let her in the store after hours.
Complete_Gur8764@reddit
YES >>>this! This is someone so out of touch with how exhausting retail work is. The store was closed. The employees were ready to go home and she shows up like rules don't apply. The employees even let her in, and when she took advantage, and her sweet time, they eventually got tired and asked her to leave. This woman then belittles the CEO with her audience on her side. Such bull.
mickeltee@reddit
I never liked her. My sister was tuned in every day, and I always thought she seemed slimy.
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
She jumped the shark for me w Dr Oz
mookpa2@reddit
The Oprah effect was a phenomenon. She was an inspiration but as with all people who have power perversion sets in. She had whole teams to vet guests but her platforming absolute shit was how she built her following and it was corrupt and unethical all along really. The sensationalism is why people watched
Bright_External_4161@reddit
When the show became less trashy. I think I watched more of Jenny Jones after school
Humbled_Humanz@reddit
Hiring snake oil salesmen? Even the local DC shock jock wouldn’t entertain Dr. Oz’s bullshit, and that should tell you something.
butterbeanscafe@reddit
In the early 2000s, I worked for a company that processed orders for a bunch of clothing companies.
One of the companies had been featured on Oprah’s favorite things that year.
I was honestly in shock how many people called to purchase the item because it was on Oprah. I’m talking grown women crying on the phone if the color they wanted wasn’t in or their order wouldn’t arrive for March Madness and they needed to wear those jeans.
It was cult like. Everything she touched turned to gold.
AshDogBucket@reddit
... never?
I always knew she was a successful and respected woman, but never really paid all that much attention to her. My mom watched her show sometimes I guess, but i don't remember ever watching it.
A few years ago I read the book In Search of the Color Purple and I was really impressed with her story - how she used her own trauma to gain a platform and raise awareness of sexual assault. It was gutsy af, especially for a Black woman.
Aside from that piece of her story, and the fact that she gives things away, I still really don't know much about her 🤷♀️
tgold77@reddit
Who?
Lotus-child89@reddit
Definitely at the “Rainbow Party” propaganda bullshit.
MNJayW@reddit
For me it was the men only episode with Dr. Oz. I was in my late 20's when it aired.
The next day my GF freaked out because she heard me peeing and demanded I get my prostate checked.
Starkravingbrie@reddit
When she said her pet peeve was bathroom towels that don’t match. A very long time ago.
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
Pet peeves are small things that annoy us a lot more than they reasonably should. So this one is okay.
Starkravingbrie@reddit
I understand that but I knew she no longer understood people that couldn’t afford matching towels and it was a turn off.
JHerbY2K@reddit
Guys she STARTED as trash TV, then tried to take it middlebrow for a while. Look it up! Jerry Springer looked to early Oprah for inspiration
Responsible_Park3317@reddit
Never was a fan of talk shows. Seemed really performative and fake, even as a child. That being said, I always had a vaguely positive opinion of Oprah, just due to the constant PR she constantly put out there.
When I first learned that practically no one could afford to keep the cars and other lavish gifts she gave to the audience, I realized it was all smoke and mirrors. She's just another TV personality pulling a grift.
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
Worse, Pontiac had it all set up so that the audience would get the cars without having to pay taxes or otherwise end up screwed, but Oprah fucked it up, claimed they were from herself, and used them as a personal tax write-off, which resulted in most of the audience ending up with nothing.
rantingathome@reddit
When she started telling her viewers to be assholes to retail workers. Sh birthed a lot of "karens" that year.
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
I never even heard about this. Yikes.
rojoshow13@reddit
Oprah wasn't a show I watched. I knew who she was from The Color Purple and originally her show was typical trash like Giraldo or Maury. Somewhere she transitioned to a more interview focused show. And it was all about moments. She was so big that it didn't matter if I was watching her show because she was newsworthy. So I knew about Cruise. I knew about the car giveaway. I knew about Towelie and Oprah's Mingy from South Park.
geniusjunior@reddit
Her holiday gift recommendations were way out of touch financially for everyone I knew.
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
And they were always obviously paid placements.
HicJacetMelilla@reddit
For me it was the James Frey incident. She devoted an entire show to his book and story and no one at that show looked very hard at any of it. Once it came out how much he fabricated, it brought into question every other thing she had platformed. And then when we started to realize the immense harm and danger she put this country in by spotlighting Jenny McCarthy, I was kind of done.
Also in the middle of this was the “everyone gets a car but everyone has to pay taxes so maybe you won’t get to keep your car” which I thought was really uncool. The producers should have figured out a way for everyone to keep their car.
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
Pontiac did! I recall it coming out very soon after that Pontiac had it all set up so that the audience would get the cars without having to pay taxes or otherwise end up screwed, but Oprah fucked it up, claimed they were from herself, and used them as a personal tax write-off, which resulted in most of the audience ending up with nothing.
Professional-Head83@reddit
When she gave away those Pontiacs. Ever since then, she would give away whatever item was tied in with the topic of the day. And then every other talk show started copying the format. I am convinced only members of the audience are there to get free swag. And it makes these hosts look like they're the most generous people in the world, but it was probably a sponsor who paid for it to happen.
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
I recall it coming out very soon after that Pontiac had it all set up so that the audience would get the cars without having to pay taxes or otherwise end up screwed, but Oprah fucked it up, claimed they were from herself, and used them as a personal tax write-off, which resulted in most of the audience ending up with nothing.
theJobuTupaki@reddit
I really don't want to take down a woman of color, but I'll say it anyway...
Oprah's legacy is a foul one. Not only because of the assbags Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz we are left dealing with.
She asked inappropriate questions because she thought she could. She was baiting Nathan Lane into coming out (there is a touching story about how Robin Williams stepped in).
And even though I think Michael Jackson was not a good guy, she would ask him questions that were no one's business (at least at the time).
She promoted bullshit like "The Secret".
Her show was interesting at first, but she turned into a snake oil salesman for middle aged women, who treated her like her shit didn't stink.
But it is all OK, because she gave an audience a car /s
Author_Noelle_A@reddit
That car incident pissed me off. I recall it coming out very soon after that Pontiac had it all set up so that the audience would get the cars without having to pay taxes or otherwise end up screwed, but Oprah fucked it up, claimed they were from herself, and used them as a personal tax write-off, which resulted in most of the audience ending up with nothing.
app1epi@reddit
My mother in law took me to the show in the middle 2000's and the way Oprah behaved between recording was a turn off. The guest was Denzel Washington.
MelpomeneAndCalliope@reddit
How did she behave?
sciencey_scully@reddit
Three things: when Doctor Oz was on and they had a long conversation about what shape, color, texture your poo should be, when her shows became just hysterical middle aged women worshipping her, and when she went on and on about The Secret.
MelpomeneAndCalliope@reddit
I clearly remember Oprah screaming “I love it when I get the ‘S!’” when Dr Oz said it was a good poop shape to have.
DasKittySmoosh@reddit
She's always been her own brand of Scientology
I was never on board.
Myfourcats1@reddit
Her interview with Meghan and Harry. It was so scripted and fake. Her “shock” at some things she was told was too fake. All of it was bad. She had the chance to ask really good deep interview questions. It was a fluff piece meant to boost their popularity. I don’t care that they got married and left the royal family. I don’t hate Meghan. I just thought it was lame.
MelpomeneAndCalliope@reddit
So lame. And you could see Oprah was sometimes lowkey judging them under her poorly faked shock.
18randomcharacters@reddit
Didn't she push The Secret? I always saw her as a bit of a snake oil salesman.
Amanuet@reddit
We used to use "the secret" at work, just talking shit about Brad Pitt walking into the office if we asked and visualised enough.
Was an excellent shit talking topic that year!
Gian_Luck_Pickerd@reddit
Just gonna leave this here...
https://youtu.be/vLZ_GXmUTOM
SheBrokeHerCoccyx@reddit
That was so funny. I have a family member lost to this nonsense and it’s nice to at least laugh about it sometimes.
External-Praline-451@reddit
The whole Secret mentality is unbelievably narcissistic and toxic. Like all those poor kids with cancer and growing up in a war zone just need to manifest their perfect destiny and all will be well!
18randomcharacters@reddit
The thing is.... Like with most ideas, I can see there being a kernel of truth in there, but it's blown out of proportion and turned into nonsense.
Can you manifest anything? Obviously not.
However, just like there's an infinite count of fractions between 1 and 2, there's an infinite number of ways to perceive the concrete reality that exists. You can shape your own perspective, and choose an alternative reality that still exists within the confines of what's real.
Like, to make it personal. My dad voted for Trump. 3 times. But he's not MAGA. He doesn't push his beliefs on me or provoke me or insult me. He's genuinely a very kind caring person who is just wrapped up in misinformation and a huge cult. I struggle a lot with blaming him for the state of the world. A vote is a vote, doesn't matter what your reason was. But I could equally be grateful that he respects my boundaries and doesn't try to convince me of anything, or confront me on my own beliefs.
Think about how many things happen simultaneously at every second of the day. You can choose to pay attention to any of them, but not all of them. And what you pay attention to becomes your reality.
Do you spend your days and nights watching kitten videos and ignoring everything else? The world must seem very gentle and tame to you. Do you spend all that time watching the genocide in Palestine? Same world. Different perspective.
That's "The Secret" in a nutshell.
Kennikend@reddit
Yes 🙄
greendocklight@reddit
When she produced and starred in Beloved and crash dieted to be on a Vogue cover. Her fawning over celebrities always got on my nerves but it was then I realized how thirsty she was to be one.
MelpomeneAndCalliope@reddit
Yeah, when Oprah got skinny in the mid-2000s she was so fucking judgy about it and high on herself (she even kind of admitted this when she gained some of it back). That’s when I really started to rethink her popularity and if she was really likable.
_meestir_@reddit
Tom Cruise
MelpomeneAndCalliope@reddit
Agree, this was when it all started to crumble.
purpley77@reddit
man, i used to watch her all the time. i grew up in Asia so the show always intrigued me. to be honest, there were some good mixed with the bad. before Dr. Oz became the POS that he is, he was actually giving legitimate advice regarding the heart.
however, there were always episodes that made me uncomfortable back then. like there was an episode and the guest had some kind of body dysmorphia. he couldn't see himself as beautiful or thin yet Oprah just kept pointing out that he was already beautiful and thin. It was very much like "Oh, you're depressed? Just be happy!"
then there was that episode where the guests were a family who just suffered a great tragedy. like i think the family was just coming from a wedding, their daughters were flower girls iirc. then they were hit by a drunk driver and i think the daughters died. i just remember the parents still being very shell shocked and the mom was still telling the story like she still couldn't understand that her daughters were gone? i remember the mom saying "i was holding her head." TW >!(the daughter was decapitated by the seatbelt) !< i just thought that family shouldn't have been on the show that quick, yet i remember Oprah emphasizing that she always asks her producers what were their intentions as they pitch their episodes.
at first, i didn't blame her for Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and the anti vac episode of Jenny McCarthy. i thought why would i hold her responsible for the actions of other adults. but for her to stay quiet up till now... she became the villain to me. she brought back James Frey because it was very obvious her pride got a hit and she needed to retaliate. she had no problem bringing back Iyanla when they supposedly reconciled. but not a peep about the glaring mistakes she has platformed.
oh, and for her to say that she felt so much better when she turned 40 did a lot of disservice to perimenopausal women now. we expected none of this perimenopause hell! and now, she's getting on that bandwagon coz gen x women are not having it with perimenopause. girl...
she definitely jumped the shark when she brought out all these "gurus" every week. like tuesday would be eckhart tolle, then wednesday is Oz, Iyanla on thursdays...
LetHuge623@reddit
Ember when she gave everyone hummers for free?
LordZany@reddit
She was jumping the shark from the beginning for me. Except for the Color Purple.
sey5_venn@reddit
In retrospect I think it would be when she hosted Jenny McCarthy and allowed her to spew her anti-vax bullshit. There was probably no single event that go us to where we are today with anti-vaxxers chugging ivermectin and being haunted by 5G chips, but Winfrey definitely propelled McCarthy to new heights of legitimacy that (IMO) she otherwise would not have had.
Meatball-Alfredo-Mom@reddit
I’d say early 2000’s. I realized she was a shit person pretending to be a good person.
WestboundPachyderm@reddit
Behind the Bastards podcast did an excellent multi-episode series on her and I highly recommend it.
1CoolSPEDTeacher@reddit
I second that
dillonsrule@reddit
I realized it when I heard a small radio piece about performing artists (I want to say in Chicago) being told that they were being paid through "exposure" for performing at one of Oprah's events. It seemed absurd that someone who was so famously rich would think she wouldn't have to pay people performing at her events.
HearseWithNoName@reddit
Ya know, now that I have had a chance to think about it, I stopped around the time Tom C bag jumped on the couch and I thought... whaaaaa why am I watching this crap?
Meatball-Alfredo-Mom@reddit
That was insane. I don’t believe Tom to be mentally well overall though lol
Kittypie75@reddit
If you recall, she was also instrumental in pushing the "satanic panic" idea back in the day. She really lost me at The Secret though. Such idiocy.
I've always had respect for her work ethic, but she is either very gullible or a conwoman.
TexasRN1@reddit
I never really liked her. She would ask question to whomever she was interviewing and then cut them off. Something’s always been off with her.
hideNseekKatt@reddit
My mom loved her so her show was watched daily in my house growing up. I however, have disliked her since I was a tween in the early 90s; she gave me insincerer doing it for aperances kinda vibes.
InvestigatorRude960@reddit
when she went "Hollywood" and had lousy actors pushing their awful shitty films. Halle Berry calling Catwoman,the role that changed her life?? bitch,what?
Internal_Praline_658@reddit
Idk why this was it but Oprah and Gayle were going on a road trip and it was just so funny neither knew how to pump gas. I remember them laughing so hard and it just pissed me off.
SidFinch99@reddit
The first time I ever heard the false rumor that Autism was linked to vaccines was on Oprah. She was doing what seemed like a well intentioned show on Autism, I brought it up with a so called expert, who didn't dismiss it.
fromthedarqwaves@reddit
You get a car! and you get a car! and you get a car! Close second was Tom Cruise jumping on the couch.
TheGirlwThePinkHair@reddit
When she & too many others made the crazy FLDS women look like just sweet moms who wanted their kids back, after the raid on the FLDS Church in 2008. People who love their children don’t allow them to married at 12-13 to old men. One of the women she interviewed talked about how the child marriage thing was lie, even tho multiple women have said she was involved in their child marriages.
bgva@reddit
Sometime in the mid-90s she started pandering more and more to the suburban housewives, and it didn’t feel as sensational. As a result I think she started taking herself a little too seriously at times. Platforming Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil didn’t help.
I remember blurting out that I couldn’t stand Oprah in 8th grade, and my classmates thought I’d lost my mind.
WheelOfFish@reddit
I highly recommend the behind the bastards series on this bitch.
autonimity@reddit
Dr Phil and Dr Oz
an absolute indifference changed to a clear indeference
everything after this was not unexpected
however because of this, eventually Dr Phil was confronted by himself on his own show and that was one of the best moments ever in talk show history
sweetassassin@reddit
I would estimate it to be 2003ish. I remember being in-line at the grocery store with my cousin, then roommate; we’d just smoke pot, watch napoleon dynamite every night, and ask all of life’s hard hitting questions.
Scanning the magazine rack questioned out loud, “So wait… Oprah is on EVERY cover of her magazine? like EVERY MONTH?"
That was the end of the line for me.
ClassroomFit7065@reddit
Oprah hopped the shark for me in the mid-‘90s, i.e. basically when I started to clock her as a cultural phenomenon. I wouldn’t have articulated it this way at the time - I was 12! - but I think I began to realize her pop faux-empowerment was just a weird, not-so-subtle cult of personality. I remember being disturbed that full-grown adults had such a parasocial relationship with her. (I was also raised Catholic, so I would sometimes idly ponder whether she was the Antichrist. Ah, tweenhood!)
Strong_Lurking_Game@reddit
Yes! My mom watched her religiously. Background noise to me.
The absolute bullshit she promoted was rancid. The first I remember clocking was the jelly bracelets for sex acts.
It only got worse from there. So much satanic panic and promoting other gross personalities.
Davethe3rd@reddit
Turns out that Al Bundy was right about Oprah the whole time!
cat_at_the_keyboard@reddit
When she opened the african girls school, got a bunch of attention and support for it, then pulled funding
Workamania@reddit
I was never an Oprah fan, but I was befuddled by how her audience would follow her to hell. She was the ultimate influencer. I think she jumped the shark with "You get a car!" for Oprah's Favorite Things. She gave everyone in her audience an insane tax bill just for showing up.
RemarkablePaper1798@reddit
When she moved to a small, rural community and pitched a fit when the county wouldn't pay to pave the gravel roads.
rapturaeglantine@reddit
I fully believe that my mom could have become anti-vaxx due to Oprah platforming Jenny McCarthy. My child was born in 2006 but my mom was absolutely starting to say things like "with your next one maybe we should space them out more." I was immediately weirded out and concerned by it, and lo and behold. Here we are.
No_Snow1928@reddit
Never liked her from the start. Liked her even less when my friends minor son worked in a movie with her and I heard stories.
winksoutloud@reddit
When her show started feeling like a Christian talk show instead of just a talk show. That was some time in the mid to late 90s. Soon after she started with the gurus and grifters
CaptGarfield@reddit
Check out the Behind the Bastards podcast episodes about her. She's enabled a lot of bastards
Matrinka@reddit
I'm happy to say that I never liked Oprah. She always seemed fake. My mom loved her show and would always get mad at me for not trusting her character. Fast forward to today and my mom also can't stand her. Mom's last straw was her interview wit Prince Harry and Megan Markel.
EmmalouEsq@reddit
The pseudoscience she made popular and then her problematic girls school in Africa.
I just never enjoyed her show, but the phoney crap she's unleashed on us should be enough for her to be canceled.
SpaceAdventures3D@reddit
When she came out with O magazine with herself on each cover. I felt it was egotistical.
Amy_Macadamia@reddit
My mother in law would NOT stop subscribing that magazine to me! Thank dog it went defunct. Besides Oprah on every cover, it had the worst editorials of navel gazing self reflections of the world's most obnoxious women. Every product they featured was insanely expensive.
TheJDOGG71@reddit
Joanna Gaines does the same with Magnolia Journal.
Bobsegerbackupsinger@reddit
And Martha Stewart
Consistent-Ease6070@reddit
And Rachael Ray…
desertdweller2011@reddit
my first job out of college was at her magazine lol. i do not know this for sure but having worked for several hearst magazines, id be willing to bet her on the cover was as much hearsts decision as hers - because her face sold magazines.
Von_Jelway@reddit
And you were right to feel that way.
Master-CylinderPants@reddit
"Jumped the shark" implies there was ever a time that she wasn't a complete jamoke to begin with.
SquirrelEnthusiast@reddit
I never understood Oprah. Then more and more weird stuff happened with her and I'm like cool, thanks for confirming.
I watched her off and on after school and never got it. The hell was she even talking about? Why do I care? Why do I care about these moms who like her? Her audience always looked like the people I was always being picked on by or talked down to by.
Granted I was a teen, but there was never anything about her show that made me want to watch.
Donahue and Sally though? Sally was problematic and I turned her off after awhile. Donahue I just don't remember but the novelty of an old man doing a talk show was fun.
Today I learned a bunch of Gen x people actually watched Oprah. I thought that was just Boomer culture.
trumpsmellslikcheese@reddit
Yeah exactly, that phrase refers to a very different concept (originating from Happy Days). This is just her revealing who she is.
condessamaudechardin@reddit
After she platformed John of God (João de Deus). Did she ever apologize for that?
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
I always assumed people on the screen were the equivalent of cartoon characters. Smartphones have not disappointed me.
LevelPerception4@reddit
I never gave her much thought until she produced a series about Lindsay Lohan in 2014. The concept was to show sober healthy Lindsay getting her career back on track, but it was obvious from the first episode that she wasn’t sober.
The ethical thing to do IMO would have been to cancel the project long before enough footage had been shot to create a show. If Oprah had genuinely wanted to help Lindsay, she should have eaten the costs, maybe offered to pay for (another) rehab. That series was so uncomfortable to watch because it felt so exploitative. And it wasn’t even enough, Dr. Phil had to do his own special to pick the remaining flesh off her bones.
FionaGoodeEnough@reddit
I haven’t trusted her since she first started separating herself from the other trashy daytime talkshows like Donahue. Pepperidge Farms remembers…
Silent_Supermarket70@reddit
Honestly, I never liked her. I didn't like the way she asked people questions, it just rubbed me the wrong way. I can't say I hate her and I can't say it's all her fault that we have Dr. Phil and Oz because to the public it legit seemed like they were helping and bringing awareness to certain health/mental health issues at the time. But I could never like Oprah and I couldn't explain why and I used to feel bad about it.
SilentSerel@reddit
She started getting preachy and leaning in to that "remembering your spirit" new age thing.
stormer1_1@reddit
I didn't enjoy the way she treated MJ during that interview.
digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit
I never understood why people liked her
ElderberryNo2982@reddit
John of God. She had an episode about him as some kind of miraculous healer. Yikes! Terrible discernment.
InfidelZombie@reddit
She's been a scammer for as long as I can recall.
SilentDrapeRunner11@reddit
I started getting annoyed with her in the late 90s when I noticed that her followers seemed to have a cult-like mentality, and she was always pushing random products or 'experts' instead of doing interesting interviews.
desertdweller2011@reddit
this didn’t necessarily make me stop watching at the time, but i remember so clearly when they had a teenage girl who was addicted to meth on and then turned it into an intervention. in front of a live studio audience! i think about it now and am just flabbergasted at that. all those people staring at her with judgement - doesn’t feel like care or concern, just shame and coercion.
Chimpsandcheese@reddit
I don’t know the exact moment. She’s bugged me for a long time. I recently saw a magazine with a headline saying something about “Oprah reveals the truth about her weight” and all I could think was that I’ve been hearing the “truth” about this bitch’s weight for my entire life. She needs to take her billions and fuck off somewhere quietly.
Consistent_Big2144@reddit
That "million little pieces" book. My friend in high school read those books when they came out (because they had the Oprah book club sticker on it.) I read the first couple of paragraphs and knew the guy who wrote it was full of b.s.
mythrowaweighin@reddit
When each episode suddenly began with a minute-long standing ovation when she walked out on stage. They couldn’t have edited that out to dedicate more time to the day’s topic?
When she ended a season with a cliffhanger: Will I return for another season or not? Then the next season, she was back and explained that she HAD to continue the show. Not for the fame or the $$$$ but because society NEEDED her.
TheL95@reddit
I remember when she started some kind of girls’ school in South Africa. She sat down with Henry Louis Gates and talked about how at home she felt in South Africa, and how that must be where her own ancestors were from. He had to explain to her that No, no slaves came from South Africa. I’m not criticizing her work there, or her feelings, but the fact that she thought she could be South African made me realize maybe she wasn’t as smart as she made herself out to be.
wheniwaswheniwas@reddit
My wife lived there for two years a while back and I'd fly back and forth. The amount of people who felt like they were "going home" and bringing school supplies for the village kids was pretty laughable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbqA6o8_WC0
wheniwaswheniwas@reddit
She was pretty much always a judgey bitch that appealed to other judgey bitches.
forbins@reddit
It was the bee incident imo
Sorry_Challenge_4179@reddit
Awful awful woman. Just look at who she surrounded herself with
Sensitive_Diamond328@reddit
The wagon of fat.
cbih@reddit
When they gave her a show
Historical-Piglet-86@reddit
As a pharmacist in the early 2000s. Whenever a person would ask me a question about some “snake oil product” I instantly knew they had watched Oprah/Dr Oz.
slyseekr@reddit
When she tried to out Nathan Lane during The Birdcage press tour in 1996. It was despicable and thankfully Robin Williams was there to protect him.
Still-Minimum-7212@reddit
Dr. Oz
roadtrip1414@reddit
john of god
clutzycook@reddit
I never liked her. I remember hearing on the radio that she was ending her show way back in, like, 1997 or 98 and being happy about it, but then it kept going for almost another 15 years. Add to that she is directly responsible for bringing hacks like Oz and Phil into the limelight and giving a platform for that psycho Jenny McCarthy, thereby breathing life into the antivax movement, she is directly or indirectly responsible for a number of things we are now having to deal with today.
affectionateanarchy8@reddit
Wasnt into her but my mom stopped when Dr Phil got famous and when she started slapping 'Oprah's book club' on everything
arcxjo@reddit
When she tried to kill the US beef industry because some Brits for BSE.
Significant_Dog412@reddit
Perhaps being the other side of the Atlantic, Oprah's influence never carried over and always looked weird from an outside perspective.
Oprah was shown as lunchtime filler for a short time at least (and a couple of others like Ricki Lake). Jerry Springer was the only US talk show to really catch on in Britain due to its sheer "only in America" oddness.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
wow!
yoursmartfriend@reddit
The years she was comparable to Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer were the entertaining years. Then, she started taking herself too seriously.
Dry_Ass_P-word@reddit
Dr Phil
I thought it was a skit.
FALSE_PROTAGONIST@reddit
It was insane the way she pushed this guy. Insane to turn out he has basically no qualifications and his “skill” boils down to good old boy advice. She is the queen of woo woo
ae118@reddit
There was a family reunification episode where the grandfather (?) straight up told her that they should have done it in private, and she was dismissive, and I knew it was for ratings but was surprised they aired his criticism and it made me think a bit.
After that, there was The Secret, John of God, and platforming Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz.
JettandTheo@reddit
I remember her from her phase when she was basically Jerry springer. She never was elevated in my mind, just another day time person with a mic.
lsp2005@reddit
When she had Dr Oz on, that was the moment for me. I used to watch her show every day. Then she changed her model to sell stuff and I felt like she became a salesman vs talk show host. Then she had photos with Harvey Weinstein and that is when I 100% knew I could never trust her or her opinion. Then there was the privatization of the road in Hawaii and going into the shelter when people lost everything. I thought it made her look like a disaster tourist. Then there was the Meghan Markle and Harry interview with zero push back. That was what sealed the deal.
Kennikend@reddit
It wasn’t one thing but slowly I realized she thought luck had nothing to do with her success. I think she worked very hard and overcame a lot of things. But once you start thinking you got somewhere solely due to your talents, then that means you think other people just aren’t hard working or worthy enough. She has active disdain for poor people and no awareness of systemic oppression.
Also when she said she had never gone to therapy because that’s what she did on her show! Girl, get some help.
Kalorama_Master@reddit
She had a guest who had helped the Shining Path as a victim.
fn_magical@reddit
Oprah died in 1993. Remember she was a fat talk show host? Then She disappeared. She reappeared years later skinny and filthy rich.
She fuckin died and sold her soul to the devil. When she got to hell she met the devil saying Dr. Phil send me back. I want to be skinny and white people rich. The devil took pity on her for all the work she has done for him over the years. He granted her first wish but refused to make her white people rich. That's where the phrase "Oprah rich" came from.
YinzaJagoff@reddit
When my neighbor was on the slow, crying about being bullied at school, when in reality, she did quite a lot if shit to bring that onto herself, like saying how hood she was (she’s from the burbs so def not hood).
BuffaloRedshark@reddit
Day 1? I was never a fan
throwawayjoeyboots@reddit
It was the early 2000s. Her ego exploded and all of a sudden she was an expert in every subject, social, political, science.
In the 90s she tended to stay in her lane and had the nation eating up her every word as a relatable person.
Cthulhus-Tailor@reddit
Just after The Color Purple.