Hunt: End of "Oprah" Just a Beginning

(CBS)  Daytime talk show host, actress and comedienne Bonnie Hunt said on "The Early Show" the announcement that talk queen Oprah Winfrey will end her show in 2011 is "just the beginning" for the media icon.

"I don't think this is the end of Oprah," Hunt said, "... It's only the beginning. I have a feeling that she'll probably have her own station, and continue to do what she does."

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Hunt, the host of "The Bonnie Hunt Show," said that, from the beginning of Oprah's national television career, she's tried to do something positive with her show.

"Oprah was not somebody who was telling us what to do, she wasn't really teaching us like so many people we see today," Hunt said. "... With Oprah, she was learning and we were learning with her. And I think that's really was the seed that was planted for all of us to just hang in there with her."

"Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith pointed out that when Oprah debuted in 1986 she was pitted against then-talk king Phil Donahue.

"I think it took a week for her to beat him," Smith said.

Oprah went from being a little known local television anchor into a media powerhouse.

Hunt said part of Oprah's appeal was that she worked as insider for viewers.

"We had somebody inside telling us what was going on. And then as she increased her credibility and fame, then all of a sudden she had access to everyone. And we felt like we were a part of that, as well."

But is Hunt secretly happy Oprah's ending her talk show run?

Hunt said, "I would hope to have some of the same audience that Oprah has earned. And I would love to earn that, as well. And certainly, yeah, it would be nice to have a little elbow room for her to share."

Oprah's empire extends from magazines, to books, to movies. Her net worth, according to Forbes magazine, is an estimated $2.7 billion.

But she's best known for "The Oprah Winfrey Show." And that's where Oprah will announce Friday on air that she will end the show in September 2011, after 25 seasons. Oprah told her staff on Thursday.

"The Oprah Winfrey Show" is watched in 145 countries worldwide and an estimated 42 million viewers tune in on a weekly basis.

Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist and author told CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers, "She's defining, she's seminal, she's important. It's hard to imagine what a talk show world without Oprah would look like."

[kofiannanymous]

I think Oprah must have caught Quitter's Disease during her interview with Sarah Palin.