Frenzy as Oprah gives away 276 cars

LOS ANGELES – Television host Oprah Winfrey had a big surprise for the 276 members of her studio audience when she opened the latest season of her daytime talk show this week — she gave them all new cars.

The US$7 million giveaway came courtesy of General Motors, which provided the free Pontiac G6 sports sedans, a new line of cars, as part of a promotional deal with Winfrey’s Chicago-based show, a spokeswoman for her Harpo Productions said. The automotive handout introduced a ‘Wildest Dreams Come True’ theme for the 19th season of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’, which has reigned as the top daytime talk program in U.S. syndication since its debut in 1986.”No dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off,” Winfrey said during the telecast.The show opened with Winfrey calling 11 members of the audience to the stage and surprising them with the new car.She then handed out gift boxes to the rest of the audience, saying one of them held the keys to a 12th free car.At the count of three, the boxes were opened all at once, revealing that everyone was a winner.In a frenzied outpouring of joy resembling a religious revival, members of the audience shrieked, cried and hugged each other for several minutes as Winfrey jumped up and down, yelling, “Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! How wild is that?” Winfrey then led the ecstatic crowd outside the studio to a parking lot filled with G6s topped with big red bows.Each member of the audience has been instructed to contact a Pontiac representative to customise the actual cars they will receive, allowing them to choose the colour and features that come with a fully loaded model.Winfrey is known for presenting expensive holiday gifts to the studio audience of her annual Christmas show.But Harpo spokeswoman Carly Ubersox said, “We’ve never done a giveaway like this before.”She said most members of the audience had been specially selected in advance from letters sent in by viewers on behalf of themselves, friends or family saying they were in need of a new car.But the audience members were kept in the dark about the nature of the show until it was taped last week.Winfrey also gave away a four-year college scholarship, a US$10,000 wardrobe and make-over to a young woman who spent her teen years in foster care and homeless shelters.And a family with eight foster children was presented with a new houseful of furniture and electronics plus a $130,000 check to cover their mortgage and home repairs.- Nampa-ReutersThe automotive handout introduced a ‘Wildest Dreams Come True’ theme for the 19th season of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’, which has reigned as the top daytime talk program in U.S. syndication since its debut in 1986.”No dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off,” Winfrey said during the telecast.The show opened with Winfrey calling 11 members of the audience to the stage and surprising them with the new car.She then handed out gift boxes to the rest of the audience, saying one of them held the keys to a 12th free car.At the count of three, the boxes were opened all at once, revealing that everyone was a winner.In a frenzied outpouring of joy resembling a religious revival, members of the audience shrieked, cried and hugged each other for several minutes as Winfrey jumped up and down, yelling, “Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! How wild is that?” Winfrey then led the ecstatic crowd outside the studio to a parking lot filled with G6s topped with big red bows.Each member of the audience has been instructed to contact a Pontiac representative to customise the actual cars they will receive, allowing them to choose the colour and features that come with a fully loaded model.Winfrey is known for presenting expensive holiday gifts to the studio audience of her annual Christmas show.But Harpo spokeswoman Carly Ubersox said, “We’ve never done a giveaway like this before.”She said most members of the audience had been specially selected in advance from letters sent in by viewers on behalf of themselves, friends or family saying they were in need of a new car.But the audience members were kept in the dark about the nature of the show until it was taped last week.Winfrey also gave away a four-year college scholarship, a US$10,000 wardrobe and make-over to a young woman who spent her teen years in foster care and homeless shelters.And a family with eight foster children was presented with a new houseful of furniture and electronics plus a $130,000 check to cover their mortgage and home repairs.- Nampa-Reuters

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