Ranking Oprah

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Winfrey at the White House for the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors

Winfrey was called “arguably the world’s most powerful woman” by CNN and Time.com,^[105] “arguably the most influential woman in the world” by The American Spectator,^[106] “one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th Century” and “one of the most influential people” from 2004 to 2011 by TIME. Winfrey is the only person in the world to have appeared in the latter list on ten occasions.^[107]

At the end of the 20th century, Life listed Winfrey as both the most influential woman and the most influential black person of her generation, and in a cover story profile the magazine called her “America’s most powerful woman”.^[108] In 2007, USA Todayranked Winfrey as the most influential woman and most influential black person of the previous quarter-century.^[109] Ladies Home Journal also ranked Winfrey number one in their list of the most powerful women in America and Senator Barack Obama has said she “may be the most influential woman in the country”.^[110] In 1998, Winfrey became the first woman and first African American to top Entertainment Weekly‘s list of the 101 most powerful people in the entertainment industry.^[111] Forbes named her the world’s most powerful celebrity in 2005,^[112] 2007,^[113] 2008,^[101] 2010,^[114] and 2013.^[115] As chairman of Harpo Inc., she was named the most powerful woman in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter in 2008.^[116] She has also been listed as one of the most powerful 100 women in the world by Forbes, ranking fourteenth in 2014.^[117] In 2010, Life magazine named Winfrey one of the 100 people who changed the world, alongside such luminaries as Jesus Christ, Elvis Presley and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Winfrey was the only living woman to make the list.^[118]

Columnist Maureen Dowd seems to agree with such assessments: “She is the top alpha female in this country. She has more credibility than the president. Other successful women, such as Hillary Clinton and Martha Stewart, had to be publicly slapped down before they could move forward. Even Condi has had to play the protegé with Bush. None of this happened to Oprah – she is a straight ahead success story.^[119] Vanity Fair wrote: “Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope.^[120] Bill O’Reilly said: “this is a woman that came from nothing to rise up to be the most powerful woman, I think, in the world. I think Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in the world, not just in America. That’s – anybody who goes on her program immediately benefits through the roof. I mean, she has a loyal following; she has credibility; she has talent; and she’s done it on her own to become fabulously wealthy and fabulously powerful.”^[121]

In 2005, Winfrey was named the greatest woman in American history as part of a public poll as part of The Greatest American. She was ranked No. 9 overall on the list of greatest Americans. However, polls estimating Winfrey’s personal popularity have been inconsistent. A November 2003 Gallup poll estimated that 73% of American adults had a favorable view of Winfrey. Another Gallup poll in January 2007 estimated the figure at 74%, although it dropped to 66% when Gallup conducted the same poll in October 2007. A December 2007 Fox News poll put the figure at 55%.^[122] According to Gallup’s annual most admired poll, Americans consistently rank Winfrey as one of the most admired women in the world. Her highest rating came in 2007^[123] when she was statistically tied with Hillary Clintonfor first place.^[124] In a list compiled by the British magazine New Statesman in September 2010, she was voted 38th in the list of “The World’s 50 Most Influential Figures 2010”.^[125]

In 1989, she was accepted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame