From CSI to Grey’s Anatomy, the shows that make up the Queen of Daytime’s favorite primetime programs are anyone’s guess, but one thing’s for certain: Oprah doesn’t know jack about NeNe Leakes, Teresa Giudice, or the dozens of other suburban socialites who have become low-life celebs thanks to their primadonna antics in Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise.

In fact, she doesn’t care to.

The media mogul is preparing to end her 25-year run as host of The Oprah Winfrey Show in September. She’ll embark on launching the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) this Jan. 1. The channel will run 24 hours per day, seven days a week, and will take over what is now the Discovery Health Channel. Oprah believes the key to the new network’s success lies in the fact that the programming will be “mindful television” –- unlike so many of today’s reality shows, namely The Real Housewives.

Duck down! Shots fired!

“I think so much of television is a minefield that just zaps your energy, wastes your time,” Oprah told Parade Magazine in an interview for their Dec. 26 issue. “…I happened to be on the treadmill one night and passed one of the ‘[Real] Housewives’ shows—I don’t know which city—and literally my mouth was open ‘cause I thought, ‘This is on television?’

She added: “I recognize that there’s a whole group of people who find that very entertaining. I wonder for how long. I think that there are people who want to be fed just a little more.”

Oprah Winfrey graces the latest cover of Parade magazine wearing a red dress with her fabulous hair in play as uaual.

Inside the mag, the TV mogul talked about her new network, Sarah Palin becoming president and the Obamas.

Here is what Lady O had to say.

On considering retirement:

“I was questioning, Why don’t I build a boat and sail around the world? Why don’t I learn French and find a nice little house in Provence? I could see myself bicycling with my baguettes and the whole thing. But I talked it over with my friends, and they all said, ‘You’re not going to be happy doing nothing.”

On Sarah Palin:

“I don’t know her so I can’t speak to [whether or not she'll be a candidate]. But I would say that America’s going to fall in love with her from [her reality series, Sarah Palin's Alaska]. When I saw that first episode, I went, ‘Whoa! She is charming and very likable.’”

On Palin running for office:

“It does not scare me because I believe in the intelligence of the American public.”

On what she perceive as a failure:

“What will be a failure is if nobody comes and watches this network. What others will perceive as failure is if some shows don’t succeed. I’m concerned about the bigger overall picture: my belief that people are basically good and want to see the good in them reflected through their experiences and the shows that they watch. This is a gamble I’m taking. I believe that the banal state of television, the kind of insipid space that we’re in–that you can have as many channels as we have and not find anything that really interests you–means that to a great extent we’ve lost our way.”

On President Obama:

“I think that no one understands until you’ve been in that seat the enormous pressure to please and satisfy everybody. And I think instead of being grateful for where we are and what he has done, we’ve forgotten that we were on the brink of a depression when he took over this office. And as everybody celebrates the holiday season and sits around with their families, regardless of your circumstance, we could’ve had breadlines. How soon we forget that.”

On hoping to be an ambassador:

“Nobody’s offered [that] to me in this administration. But I will tell you a funny story. When I was at the Kennedy Center Honors for Tina Turner [in 2005], I was sitting at Colin Powell’s table, and he said that we were in the ambassadors room [a room at the State Department with portraits of ambassadors and secretaries of state]. And I said, ‘Gee, this is really–this is lovely. An ambassador, I think that would be really great.’ He goes, ‘Name your country, baby, name your country.’”

The iconic talk show host will be launching her OWN TV network on January 1st,2011.

Yesterday, Lisa Marie Presley opened up to Oprah about her relationship with Michael Jackson.

According to Presley, this was the last time she’ll talk about Michael.

Here’s what Lisa Marie had to say to Oprah:

“In every sense it was a normal marriage.”

“He was like a little gnome. because it was hard for him to sleep. I’d hear him piddling. It was a bit endearing and I didn’t mind it. But he did have a hard time sleeping, yes.”

“He was like a drug for me. I always wanted to be around him. I never felt like that feeling with another human being except for one – my father.”

“We would have 3 day arguments, taking a break to eat or sleep. Michael “really tried” to make the relationship work at times. I didn’t appreciate it then.”

Here’s what Lisa Marie had to say about her final conversation with Michael:

“I was so removed from him and he could feel it and hear it. I was very distant … He was asking me, he wanted to tell me that I was right about a lot of people around him. And he asked if I still loved him. … I told him I was indifferent and he didn’t like that word. And the final part of the conversation was him telling me that someone was going to try and kill him to get a hold of his catalog and estate. And I really didn’t know what to do with that.”

And here’s Lisa Marie on whether or not she could have saved Michael:

“Naively, I want to say: I wanted to. Could I have? Had I made a call? Had I stopped being so shut off from him? Had I just said, ‘How are you?’ I really did regret that I didn’t.”

What do U think of Lisa Marie’s comments about Michael?

 They shrieked, they gasped, they cried, they hugged – and that was before Oprah Winfrey’s studio audience got a trip to Australia.

Winfrey kicked off her 25th and final season of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Monday with promised surprises. After teasing the 300 audience members with a suggestion she might take them on a trip to New York, Philadelphia or Los Angeles, she said her last season merited something “bigger.”

“So I started to think about where would I most want to go,” she said over the din of an audience that suddenly understood they were going somewhere far away.

“Maybe I should take you all with me to the other side of the world. We’re going to Australia,” Winfrey shouted.

With that, a mock-up of a Qantas jet rolled onto stage, its door opened and actor John Travolta, who also flies airplanes, stepped out dressed as a Qantas pilot.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a news release that it was a “fantastic opportunity” to promote the airline and Australian tourism.

Winfrey, who opened her 19th season six years ago by giving out cars to everyone in her studio audience, will take this group in December on an eight-day, seven-night trip.

The audience was made up of some of who the program called its most loyal viewers over the years. And throughout the show, Winfrey introduced audience members, including a man named Larry who received word he’d been invited to the program via a taped message from Winfrey delivered to his house by NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson.

There were some surprises for Winfrey as well. Actor Don Johnson, who declined to appear on the program when it first aired in 1986 – when he was a much bigger television star than Winfrey – came by to explain he’d wanted to appear but “Miami Vice” bosses wouldn’t let him because he was too busy.

“But I understand things have been going OK for you,” he joked to Winfrey.

Winfrey teared up during a surprise appearance from singer/songwriter Paul Simon, who sang a song he’d written in honor of the show’s 10th season with updated lyrics.

The rest of this week’s show will include an appearance by country music stars The Judds, and a return to Williamson, W.Va., where she filmed a town hall episode about AIDS in 1987. The week will end with a live show on Friday, in which Winfrey will announce her first book club selection in nearly a year.

This season a parade of celebrities are likely to follow Travolta, who danced with Winfrey to open Monday’s program. Over the years, Winfrey has interviewed a host of celebrities, including Michael Jackson, Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise – who made headlines when he jumped on her sofa to proclaim his love for wife Katie Holmes.

Winfrey also might land some major interviews, as she has done throughout the years with presidential candidates George W. Bush and later Barack Obama.

But Janice Peck, author of “The Age of Oprah: Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era,” expects Winfrey will fill her season with giveaways, flashbacks and visits from past guests “who can come in and talk about how they’ve been affected by her.”

While Monday’s season premiere is the beginning of the end of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” it’s not the end of Winfrey. She’s set to launch her Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, on cable Jan. 1.

The end of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” will be featured on that network with “Behind the Scenes: Oprah’s 25th Season,” a one-hour series giving viewers a look at the making of the last season of Winfrey’s talk show.

President Obama arrived in his adopted hometown of Chicago Wednesday night, and kicked things off at River North’s popular Graham Elliot restaurant.

Following birthday dinner with Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and friends Marty Nesbitt and Eric Whitacker, the president headed to his Kenwood home.

As usual, POTUS was up bright and early for his morning workout on Thursday. The White House pool reports that he left at 7:30 a.m. to exercise at the nearby Regents Park high rise.

Obama will have a busy Thursday in Chicago, including a trip to a South Side Ford plant and three fundraisers expected to raise millions for Democrats.

Is The Queen of Talk offering scandal-scarred and financially-strapped Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson a primetime gabfest on the eagerly-awaited Oprah Network?

Billion-dollar businesswoman Oprah is expanding her empire to launch her own cable channel in 2011 and has reportedly offered Sarah Ferguson a deal for a talk show of her own.

Fergie has made a number of appearances on The Oprah Show over the years, most recently on May 28 when she found herself at the center of a bribery scandal for asking for $860,000 in return for access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew. The shamed Duchess is struggling with debt totaling nearly $5 million, making O’s offer a tough one to refuse.

A well-placed tipster told the Mail on Sunday: “Oprah made the call this week. They spoke in person and, for Sarah, the offer is a ray of light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Oprah has known Sarah for some time and the Duchess went on Oprah’s show to explain herself after her most recent scandal. Oprah has always been impressed by Sarah’s ability to pick herself up and reinvent herself.”

The Oprah Winfrey Network will launch in January, just a few months before the Chatshow Queen ends her highest-rated TV talk show after 25 years in Sept. 2011.

Thanks to an international tour, epic album sales, and fashion and fragrance deals, Grammy-winning R&B singer Beyonce rose to second with an estimated $87 million. Lensman James Cameron and philandering sportsman Tiger Woods, who took in $105 million between June 2009-June 2010 despite a far-reaching sex scandal that made the golfer tabloid fodder for months.

Additional first time appearances included Conan O’Brien (#51), the Black Eyed Peas (#16), Robert Downey, Jr. (#73), and Chelsea Handler (#98).

Rankings are based on earnings in the past 12 months, as well as visibility across print, television, radio, online. Here’s how the Top 10 rounded out:

1. Oprah Winfrey: $315 million

2. Beyonce Knowles: $87 million

3. James Cameron: $210 million

4. Lady Gaga: $62 million

5. Tiger Woods: $105 million

6. Britney Spears: $64 million

7. U2: $130 million

8. Sandra Bullock: $56 million

9. Johnny Depp: $75 million

10. Madonna: $58 million

The full list can be seen at www.forbes.com/celebs….

Oprah Winfrey has teamed up with Survivor producer Mark Burnett to launch a new program that will give an undiscovered chatterbox a chance to follow in her talk show footsteps with a daily series on her new cable network.

The series, Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star, will begin airing in January on OWN, Winfrey’s cable television station, The Associated Press said Monday.

The Queen of Talk will walk away from The Oprah Winfrey Show  in September 2011 after 25 seasons. She’s hoping to pass the torch to an aspiring chatshow host.

Contestants are invited toupload videos to Oprah.com under categories like traditional talk show, cooking, health and wellness, and interior design. It’s possible to also watch and vote on submitted videos. In-person casting calls are scheduled for later this month in cities like Atlanta, Dallas, and Orange County, California.

In a phone interview with The AP from Los Angeles on Monday, Burnett – who is also the brainchild behind Donald Trump’s The Apprentice – said the premise of the new series fits perfectly into what viewers like to watch: Regular people achieving extraordinary things.

“The landscape and acceptance of ordinary people on television is widely accepted … Much in the way American Idol finds unknown people (to be recording stars) there’s no reason we can’t find someone who deserves their own show.” Burnett advises OWN Show hopefuls. “Donald Trump gave me the greatest advice with The Apprentice: Find Peoplewith the greatest energy source … you’ll be hard-pressed to show me someone who has their own show on TV who is not energetic and who has charisma.”

“Try to be authentically yourself. Show energy,”

Sarah Ferguson says she had been drinking and was “not in my right place” when she was caught on video offering access to her former husband, Prince Andrew, for $724,000. The Duchess of York will open up about the scandal and her cash woes in an interview airing on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Tuesday.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sarah Ferguson’s road to renewing her reputation will take a major leap on Tuesday, when she appears on The Oprah Winfrey Show and talks about her recent scandal, reps for the program have told PEOPLE.

The interview is due to be taped Friday.

As it is, Ferguson is already displaying a stiff upper lip, and even a sense of humor, only days after being exposed trying to sell access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew.

“We all make mistakes,” said the Duchess of York, 50, on Wednesday night at a party in New York for the launch of her new line of children’s books. “Yet we go on. We dust ourselves down.”

Asked by PEOPLE at the event how she is faring, Ferguson replied, “Very good,” then added with a smile: “Perhaps ‘very’ is not the right word.’ ”

Before the crowd, Ferguson immediately broke the ice by referring to one of her titles, Ashley Learns About Strangers, and quipping, “Perhaps I should have taken a leaf out of my own book.” When the remark received a muted response, she smiled broadly and said, “Where’s your sense of humor tonight?” That delivered a big laugh.

She thanked her publisher, Sterling Publishing, and those who attended the private party. “I think it’s important you all came here tonight,” she said. “The show must go on.”

Sources close to Sarah Ferguson are telling media that she is overwhelmed by the amount of public support she has received in America, so much so that she is considering moving to live in New York full time. However, its not just kind words that have been flooding in — Sarah has also been receiving job offers.

“Donald Trump himself wants to help Sarah out of this awful mess that she has gotten herself into and is discussing finding Sarah a role on his hit show ‘The Apprentice,’” a TV executive tells me. “It’s not yet clear if Sarah would compete, judge or be Donald’s eyes and ears on the next season of the ‘Apprentice’ — not the celebrity version. However, what is clear is that whatever Donald wants, he usually gets.”

Sarah is determined to never mess up again, and is telling friends that if anything good comes out of this horrid situation, she will grab it and build herself a better tomorrow.