The little Baptist girl from Mississippi who became one of the most influential people in America will announce today that her talk show will come to an end in 2011, after 25 years on the air.

With millions of viewers worldwide, an XM radio station and a glossy magazine bearing her name, Oprah did so much more than incite audience hysteria over car giveaways. In her years on air, she became a spiritual leader to women around the world. Don't believe that Oprah is a religious figure? Check out the charges her fiercest critics hurl at her: leading her viewers to damnation, creating her own cult and deceiving Christians about Jesus' divinity. One widely circulated YouTube video that denounces Oprah's "trance"-inducing "church" has more than 9 million views. In other words, she's accused of blasphemy. Who knew daytime TV was so existential? ...