The Hindu : International : A bonanza from Winfrey

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

International

International

A bonanza from Winfrey

CHICAGO: The U.S. talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, celebrated the premiere of her 19th season by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car. "We're calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off," Ms. Winfrey said on the show that aired on Monday. Ms. Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written about their need for a new car. One woman's young son said she drove a car that "looks like she got into a gunfight," another couple had almost 640,000 km on their two vehicles. Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Ms. Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 persons onto the stage. She gave each of them a car — a Pontiac G6. She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a 12th car. But when everyone opened the boxes, each had a set of keys. "Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!" Ms. Winfrey yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage. The audience screamed, cried and hugged each other — then followed Ms. Winfrey out to the parking lot of her Harpo Studios to see their Pontiacs, all decorated with giant red bows. The cars, which retail for $28,000, were donated by Pontiac. — AP

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