How Oprah’s iconic car giveaway ended on a sour note
When Oprah Winfrey gave away cars to everyone in her studio audience, it went down in history as one of the most iconic moments in her TV career – that and Tom Cruise jumping on her couch.
Now, a podcast hosted by journalist Jenn White called Making Oprah: The Inside Story of a TV Revolution reveals that the car giveaway ended on a sour note for some of the recipients.
The podcast reveals that the idea for the car giveaways started with Winfrey’s best friend, Gayle King.
King sat next to an executive from the Pontiac car company on a flight and they started talking. After their chance meeting, Pontiac offered the show 25 cars for a giveaway.
However, the producers kept pushing until the manufacturer agreed to give a brand new G6 to every member of the studio audience.
The value of the 276 cars totalled US$7.7m (AU$9.84m).
Oprah was still hesitant about the giveaway as she wanted the recipients to be those who were actually in need of a new car.
“When we sat down and started to talk about the car giveaway, I asked, ‘How do we find people who really need cars?’ Because that would make it worth it to me ... that would give it a depth and an intention,” she recalled.
The show’s producers then started finding an audience who would be suitable for the giveaway without giving away the surprise. On the audience application they asked questions like, 'How do you get to work?' and 'How old is your car?'
“For the most part, the whole audience genuinely needed new cars, and that made it even more special,” said Terry Goulder, who was one of the senior producers.
The episode was the premiere of the 19th season and they needed ratings to kick off with a bang.
For the surprise to have the maximum impact, it relied on misdirecting the audience.
“The car giveaway is a surprise because they ‘fake it out’,” explained the podcast’s presenter Jenn White.
Oprah invited 11 teachers on stage who were all in desperate need of a new car and she announced that their “wildest dream” was coming true.
“The audience was all sitting back and observers at this stage, thinking, ‘Isn’t that nice for them, they got a brand-new car,’” said Oprah. “That was the fun of it.”
She then announced that a 12th car would be given away. Each member of the audience would receive a box and in one of those boxes would be the key to the car.
The audience erupted in joy and shock as they discovered that there was a key in every single box.
Producer Terry Goulder remembers that the audience was so “supercharged” he had made sure there were paramedics on site, in case someone had a heart attack.
The audience weren’t the only ones who were feeling the intense emotion in the room.
“My heart was pounding so hard ... because I was as excited for the people getting the cars, as the people were for getting the cars,” said Winfrey.
The iconic “you get a car” moment unfolded as screams erupted in the audience.
“I was screaming as loudly as I could because [the audience was] screaming so loud ... I was trying to be heard over what at this point was just happy chaos,” said Winfrey.
Producer Gina Sprehe remembers this moment as the highlight of her career.
“We didn’t know it would go that well ... it was just magical ... when you watch 276 people have total meltdowns, you’re just so happy for them. It’s so nice to see people that happy.”
Although lives were dramatically changed with the giveaway, unfortunately, there was a sour taste left with some after the euphoric feeling passed.
Terry Goulder believes that the moment of TV greatness backfired on them.
“It was really hard to produce shows after that, because all the audience wanted cars,” he said.
Producer Lisa Erspamer also saw a different side to the giveaway.
“It was devastating after, because ‘gift tax’ is a thing, and it’s always a complicated thing when you’re giving stuff away,” she said.
“But we paid for the sales tax and the registration for each car, and we told the audience after, if they didn’t want to have to pay a gift tax, they could actually take cash for the car.
“And because we didn’t pay the gift tax, people complained to the press, and that was devastating.”
White said in the podcast, “You can understand why some of the audience might be annoyed with getting a bill of up to $US7,000 ($8,900) depending on your tax bracket ... but you can also understand the producers looking at that and going, ‘We just gave you a car?’”
Erspamer continued, “We put our whole soul into this moment of television and with real intention to do something good, and so when people had a negative reaction, it like literally hurt our feelings."
She added, “You know, we’re people and it made us really sad.”