Entertainment News – Media mogul Oprah Winfrey has been riding high since her influential afternoon talk show went off the air —with best-selling books, a return to big-screen acting and her successful OWN cable network — and now she will be bringing her star-power to an already established franchise, “60 Minutes.”
CBS revealed on Tuesday that the 63-year-old will be appearing as a special contributor on the Sunday evening news magazine program starting in this fall.
“There is only one Oprah Winfrey,” the show’s executive producer Jeff Fager said in an official statement. “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,” he added.
The role will be a bit of a throwback for Winfrey, who got her start as a news anchor before evolving into perhaps the most successful syndicated talk show personality in history. Winfrey said she’s been a “big admirer” of “60 Minutes” since she began her career.
“I’m so excited and proud to join forces with this historic news program, which for me represents the bastion of journalistic storytelling,” Winfrey said in a statement. “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.”
Meanwhile, Winfrey will continue on in her roles as a board member at Weight Watchers, as a philanthropist and as the chairman and CEO of both OWN and O, the Oprah Magazine.
She has also been cast in director Ava DuVernay’s highly anticipated big screen adaptation of the best-selling young adult fantasy book “A Wrinkle in Time.”
In other words, you get more Oprah! And, you get more Oprah! And you get more Oprah! Everybody gets more Oprah!
by ADAM HOWARD, NBCNews.com
