Oprah kicks off in top gear

2004-09-14 07:27

Chicago - US 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," Oprah said on the show that aired in the US on Monday.

She 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".

Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Oprah opened the show by calling 11 people 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!" Oprah yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage.

The audience screamed, cried and hugged each other - then followed Oprah 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 (about R183 000), were donated by Pontiac.

"A little idea grew into a big idea," Mary Henige of Pontiac said.

She added that Pontiac will pay for the taxes and the customising of the cars.

In other segments on the show, Oprah surprised a 20-year-old girl who had spent years in foster care and homeless shelters with a four-year college scholarship, a makeover and $10 000 (about R65 000) in clothes.

And a family with eight foster children who were going to be kicked out of their house were given $130 000 (about R849 000) to buy and repair the home.

The Oprah Winfrey Show, which debuted in 1986, is syndicated to 212 domestic markets and 109 countries.

On the net:

www.oprah.com

- AP