Oprah Winfrey is ending her long-running show this season.Kiichiro Sato
Say goodbye to a major cultural phenom: Oprah Winfrey's "favourite things" episode - the first of two parts - aired today. It will be the last of its kind as she gets set to retire her show.
Reports say Oprah started today's The Oprah Winfrey Show by saying, "One of the best ways we can prepare for giving is meditation." She then asked her audience members, who had been chosen for their good deeds, whether they mediate.
"Meditate on this!" she said and dropped her black outfit to reveal a red ballgown as a giant tree and presents as snow filled the studio. Cue the screaming.
"Hold on to yourself, it's a long hour," Oprah joked.
In the first two minutes of the show, one man is down on the ground clapping and crying as if he'd just seen the Messiah, according to CNN.
The loot ranged from the splashy (52-inch Sony Bravia flat screen TVs) to the more humbling ($100 gift card for use on KIVA.org, a micro-loan philanthropy site). For some sweet armchair fantasy shopping, view the full list.
Which of these things would you have shrieked for? An Oprah watch, with 58 hand-set diamonds and two "O's" on the face? Nah. A seven-day cruise? Maybe.
Or has it all been an embarrassing exercise in brash consumerism?