It is now confirmed the show will air Friday, so set your DVRs and get ready to have your mind blown.

Are you fully aware of how epic this show will be? Here’s Associated Content to play it up for you:

After a two year hiatus from giving away the really big gifts (in 2008 Oprah felt it was wrong to bask her viewers in gifts due to the economy and instead touted homemade gifts; last year she ditched the whole thing altogether) , Oprah is back with her final Favorite Things episode. Her mag touts that this year will have a “humungous twist”. We can only imagine what that will be!

Still not convinced? What if I told you the Denver Post, an actual newspaper, was profiling Christie Morris because she was probably going to be in the audience for the Favorite Things episode. According to the story, the show taped today, but the audience has been sworn to secrecy about what exactly the twist was, and whether Morris got a car, and the person sitting next to her got a car, and the person…

Over at this blog, Friday will be like the Presidential Election.

Enjoy!

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The mogul recently sat down with Fortune‘s Patricia Sellers to discuss the evolution of OWN and how exactly she’ll be making the transition from running her talk show in Chicago to running her network in Los Angeles. It’s going to be a big job—albeit one that’s, at least potentially, going to be incredibly lucrative:

By populating and evangelizing on OWN 24/7 — a daunting 1,200 hours of programming a year — Oprah realized that she had the opportunity to increase her impact on the world and make some nice money along the way. Bank of America Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen thinks that OWN will attract more than $145 million in ad revenue in its first year of operation. (That would put OWN in the league of such cable networks as The Weather Channel and Animal Planet, according to SNL Kagan.) Depending on ratings, it could turn a profit of $100 million in year three and grow significantly from there — making it one of the most successful media launches this past decade, rivaling the introduction of O, The Oprah Magazine, a partnership of Harpo and Hearst, in 2000.

Not that any of this matters to “authentic” Oprah, who insists she cares more than anything about being true to her viewers. “My fear about ‘Will the people really follow me?’ — I’m past that,” says Oprah. This past summer, she says, she was reading a magazine article about Michael Jackson and was riveted by a quote from a former colleague of the late superstar. The friend said that after Jackson released Thriller in 1982 and it became the all-time best-selling album, he was paralyzed by the notion that he could never top that. “All the bells went off,” says Oprah. “This is why I lived in fear about this network. I kept thinking I have to repeat the 25-year phenomenon of the Oprah show.” She adds: “I don’t want to be Michael Jackson.”

Later, Sellers writes that OWN might be worth a staggering $3 billion “in a few years,” which would make it a match for Winfrey’s own $3 billion net worth.

The interview isn’t all about money. Winfrey also reveals what sorts of programs will appear on OWN. Unsurprisingly, the slate is filled mostly with uplifting reality shows and showcases for Winfrey herself. It includes Kidnapped by the Kids, a series in which “the children of work addicts literally capture their parents and take away their e-mail access and office time until they change their ways;” a six-part docuseries starring Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, as she adjusts to life without her fortune; a new talk show hosted by Rosie O’Donnell; and Oprah’s Next Chapter, a follow-up to Winfrey’s talk show that will “show her running around the globe, exploring places she’s never been, like the Sahara desert, and interviewing locals.”

There will also be a reality competition series called Your Own Show, in which wannabe Winfreys will battle to win their own talk show on OWN.

You can read the Fortune cover story in full here.

Via the Times:

Ms. Winfrey pressed Mr. Leno frequently about how the reaction to the moves have affected him, especially the accusations that have been leveled against him by Mr. O’Brien’s supporters that he was being selfish and should have retired. (She also cited a poll of her own viewers that showed an overwhelming 96 per cent of them believed he should have left the show to Mr. O’Brien.) Mr. Leno defended his decision, saying he had a staff who wanted to keep working and that he himself had no desire to just walk away from a job he loves.

“If you’re a gunfighter you’d like to die in the street,” he said.

Leno also goes on to say he was “sucker punched” by Jimmy Kimmel‘s skewering of him on The Jay Leno Show, and speaking of Conan, Leno said, “Great performer and good comic and a good guy. There’s no–no animosity there.” On the future, Leno noted, “I think he will have a successful show on Fox or somewhere else. And then we will all compete again and may the best man win.”

Video to come!

According to People, who scored the exclusive report, Banks will leave to work on launching Bankable Studios, her film production company, and focus on bringing “positive images of women to the big screen.” True to form, Banks was motivational in her parting words: “My next huge steps will allow me to reach more women and young girls to help us all feel as fierce as we truly are,” she said.

The announcement was also tied to Oprah‘s big show-ending news, as an industry source told People, “With Oprah’s big announcement this year, I think that gave Tyra the confidence to get out there and follow her longtime dream of film producing.”

“There’s a lot cooking right now and a lot of fire burning in my heart,” Banks promises in an open letter on her website. “And I salute you my amazing family of viewers; without you there never would have been a Tyra Show. I really love you all.”

Let us never forget:

Oprah will inevitably be remembered in totality and not for specific highlights — she is so far reaching, and now so much a part of the American psyche, that it’s hard to think of a place she hasn’t had some sort of ripple effect on (though perhaps at this moment in time it will be book publishing that will miss her presence most). With that said, here’s a look at the top ten Oprah moments of the last 23 years, which were harder to come by than you might think mostly due to the fact YouTube has only been around for the last four of those years. Nevertheless! Here are some outstanding highlights.

NEXT>>> The Oprah Fat Wagon