Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [219]
Part of the excitement in attending one of Oprah’s shows is the possibility of walking away with a fabulous giveaway—TiVos, iPods, Kindles, cakes, clothes, even cars. The most anticipated gift show of every year—“Oprah’s Favorite Things”—started in 1999 as an outgrowth of Oprah’s passion for shopping. For years she had shared her spending orgies with her viewers—her towels, her pajamas, her cashmere sweaters, her diamond earrings—and they enjoyed her unbridled enthusiasm over her newfound wealth. Excited about becoming a millionaire, she constantly asked her celebrity guests, “When did you know you were rich?” “How does it feel to be able to buy anything you want?” “What did you do when you first got real money?” “Has being a millionaire changed your life?”
When she started “Oprah’s Favorite Things” she called the manufacturer of each item she picked and asked them to send her three hundred freebies to give to her studio audience. The publicity they received in exchange launched many into new levels of profitability because they were then flooded with orders from her viewers. Small businesses such as Spanx, Inc., Thermage beauty treatment, Philosophy skin care, Carol’s Daughter beauty products, and Lafco fragrances became behemoths as a result of making something that Oprah liked; thus few companies ever denied her free merchandise. “My deal is only this: If I’m going to say it’s my favorite thing because it is my favorite thing, all you have to do is give me three hundred of them, okay? [T]here was this book that somebody had given me—a book called The Way We Live. It was a great coffee table book, and it had pictures from all over the world of different homes and how people live in these different homes. Do you know we called the publisher [Crown] and they said no? They said they didn’t have that many books to give away for free because I think the book is expensive [$75], if you buy it in stores. Can you believe that? So you know what I said, ‘Well, it’s not going to be my favorite thing no more!’ But how dumb is that [publisher]? That’s pretty dumb. It’s a book. How many books could they have sold?”
Oprah referred to her “Favorite Things” show as “the hottest ticket in television” and kept the airdate secret until the day of the show. Then she devoted an hour to giving away her favorite things of that year, which have included organic cheesecakes, candied popcorn, Ugg boots, CDs, books, coats, laptops, digital cameras, custom-designed Nike shoes, diamond watches, BlackBerrys, and flat-screen TVs. Each year she announced the items with great fanfare and always included the retail price. In 2007 she presented her most outrageously exorbitant item at the end of the show, when she hollered, “This is my most expensive favorite thing ever, ever, ever.” Nearly spent with orgasmic delight over what they had already received, her studio audience trembled as the drums rolled and the velvet curtains opened to reveal an LG refrigerator with a high-definition TV built into the door, a DVD hookup, and a radio, plus technology for a slide show, a five-day forecast, and a laptop holding one hundred recipes. “It [retails for] $3,789.00,” Oprah screamed. The grand total for that year’s Favorite Things was $7,200. Conan O’Brien joked on late-night television, “Forbes magazine released its list of the twenty richest women.