Oprah gives $2.1 million in gifts

Thursday, November 22, 2007

New York (ANI): Talk show host Oprah Winfrey brought the Christmas cheers a bit early by bestowing extravagant gifts to studio audiences on her annual show "Oprah's Favorite Things". Oprah Winfrey's "Favorite Things," is one of her most popular annual features because audience members get showered with gifts worth thousands of dollars.

At this years" show, which took place in Macon, Ga, the talk show queen lavished more than 7,000 dollars worth of gifts on each of the 300 people who wrote in and got tickets to the show, thinking the topic was going to be American hometowns. Members of the audience broke down into tears with shock after Winfrey, revealed the surprise that she had arrived to present them with her "favorite" holiday gifts, reports the New York Post.

Among the 2.1 million dollars items were Ciao Bella Blood Orange Sorbetto, which retails for 4.99 dollars a pint, as well as an HDTV-refrigerator that features a weather and information center and goes for about 4,000 dollars.

Other items to make Winfrey's "favorite things" list were: the Breville Ikon Panini Press from Williams-Sonoma (99.95 dollars); The Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" DVD set (79.95 dollars); Josh Groban's "Noel" CD (18.98 dollars); the SAMSUNG progressive HD Camcorder (799.99 dollars); UGG Australia Classic Crochet tall boot (120 dollars).

The gifts also included: the Artisan Stand Mixer from KitchenAid (349.99 dollars); Rachel Pally Swing Turtleneck (141 dollars) and Sailor Pants (194 dollars); Scrabble Premier Edition from Hasbro (299 dollars); and the United Artists 90th Anniversary Prestige Collection (869.98 dollars).

The basket included copies of a lifestyle book being published by O magazine, her new Oprah Book Club selection and a DVD set of Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" series, which she devoted a show to earlier this year.

Winfrey told the audience she chose Macon for her annual gifts show because the city has the most Oprah watchers in the nation, percentage-wise.