Oprah Winfrey says goodbye on final show

Oprah Winfrey waves as her show taped for the last time on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, in Chicago.

/ AP/Harpo Productions

(CBS/AP) CHICAGO - After 25 years on the air, Oprah Winfrey ended her famous talk show on Wednesday by sharing memories, reflecting on life lessons and thanking fans for coming along on the journey with her.

The episode featured no guests - just Winfrey herself, standing alone on stage. It opened with a clip from her first show, and she then spent the hour showing favorite clips from throughout the years and recounting what she's learned during the show's quarter-century run.

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She told viewers that sometimes she was a teacher - calling her show "the world's biggest classroom" - but more often her viewers instructed her. She called Wednesday's episode her "last class."

Among the life lessons she shared was, "You are responsible for the energy you create for yourself, and the energy you bring to others. Don't wait for somebody else to save you, to complete you, to fix you."

"Each one of you has your own platform. You can help somebody, you can listen, you can forgive," she said. "My greatest wish for all of you ... is that you carry whatever you are supposed to be doing and don't waste any more time."

She also thanked viewers for watching throughout the show's 25 years.

"Twenty-five years and I'm still saying, 'Thank you America,'" Winfrey said. "Thank you so much. There are no words to match this moment."

The taping came a week after Hollywood A-listers and 13,000 fans bid Winfrey farewell in a double-episode extravaganza at Chicago's United Center. The shows that aired Monday and Tuesday included Aretha Franklin, Tom Cruise, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jordan and Madonna, among other stars of television, music and movies. They were just a few of the approximately 30,000 guests who have appeared on the show over 25 years. On Wednesday, Winfrey called the event "a love intervention on steroids."

Winfrey ended Wednesday's show by saying she felt "all sweet, no bitter."

"I won't say goodbye," she told fans. "I'll just say until we meet again."

Winfrey then stepped off the stage and through the audience and hugged and kissed longtime partner Stedman Graham before walking through the halls of Harpo Studios in Chicago, hugging, crying and high-fiving members of her staff.

She shouted "We did it!" The last shot of the finale showed Winfrey walking away with her cocker spaniel, Sadie.

Tell us: What did you think of Winfrey's final show?

[Molly-Pchr]

Tried but could never sit through an entire show, not once. Not that it matters to anyone, least of all Oprah. But at least now she can get a life.

[RU4real66]

CBS...now I know what station all the white fat bigoted women are watching! What are you all going to do when PRESIDENT OBMAMA wins another 4 years?!? It's time to put up your white hooded robes and face the facts...your "christian" white ways are over!!!! THANK THE REAL GOD FOR OPRAH AND PRESIDENT OBMAMA!!! THEY ROCK!!!! Now, you all can go back to your sad hatful lives...chock on it!

[Molly-Pchr]

Speking of hateful...

[jose_z1]

jeezz... we get it... now just LEAVE!!!
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[Hosheen]

Good riddance to an egotistical, arrogant, hypocritical, and phony woman. I never liked her show and the fact that she bought audiences with huge give-aways that never came from her pocket anyway. Does anyone seriously think she bought all those cars and things she tossed at her viewers?

If I had ever been interviewed on her show, I would have gone on, then stopped the show by saying what I thought of her.

[HappyinWyoming]

I like her but quit taping the show years ago because I thought she was getting a little preachy for me. Her message was with out a doubt from the heart but I have a preacher and a mother and did not want one on the TV when I was trying to unwind at night. So, that being said I found the final show a bit preachy and she "acting" VERY affected and kinda, gosh I hate to say it....kinda fake. It may have come from the heart, heck it probably did but her words did not ring true with me and as far as I feel she has never been a teacher that offended me greatly. I am sure she is a kind person but she came across as better than us little guys and it turned me off a bit. sorry to all the die hard fans cause I dont dislike her, I just did not like her very well on this last show. three words - boring, preachy and fake.

[ijrlifelonglearner]

Although I don't regularly watch Oprah, I thought Oprah's final show was full of powerful, maybe simple, advice. I noticed CBS news decided to quote only the first part of Oprah's final sentence. Oprah said, "I'll just say, 'Until we meet again..........." The quotation, her last sentence, was easily truncated because she paused, but the rest of her sentence was, "to God be the glory." Does that fundamentally change the meaning of what she wanted to say? Media bias, I think.

[mewszoo]

enough already and good riddance. Oh, and thanks millions for helping saddle this country with BHO!

[heis4real]

It is unfair to call her a bigot like some have done for her promotion of Obama. Blacks complained that she did not feature enough black authors, clothing designers, and most all her new shows and her Oprah Show Producers were white. I don't think it's fair to slander her character and call her a racist or bigot like some militant blacks that had said she is not black enough, while whites say she is a bigot. This is wrong!
My issue is that our values are seriously out of wack when we worship and make Idols of Television Celebrities. Oprah may have been nice and even generous but OH PLease, give me a break, she is not Jesus the Christ and neither did she find the cure for cancer.

[Jjfish51]

Didn't really care for the final show, but I do like Oprah, she is a good person, and has done great things for many people the last 25 years. God Bless you Oprah.

[heis4real]

She promoted her brand and make herself rich. I was surprised to discover by watching her Own network of Oprah Year 25 behind the Scenes of her Oprah show that her give aways of Oprah's favorite things were all donated for free in turn for the publicity. This also included the cars. What she gave on the show did not come out of her own pocket and it made people think much of her, in the end it promoted her show and her. Oprah is not Jesus and in another 25 yrs who will care, her name will fade like all the rest but Jesus name lives forever!

[UnnaturalPrez]

She enslaved the masses with material things. She cried on demand. She made the audience agree with her. She was hitler rolled up into a big purple fluffy mess, and you bought it hook, line & sinker. She was a disgrace and a liar and took credit where none was deserved. Steadman smelled her con a mile away.

[formrusmcsgt]

Oprah Winfrey says goodbye
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Good.