Oprah Winfrey is one of the most famous women in the world with an income to match.
On her 20th anniversary program Oprah revealed that Roger Ebert was the person who suggested that she should go into syndication. It happened when the two of them were out on a date at Hamburger Hamlet after a movie. Oprah told Roger that ABC stations and King World offered to syndicate her show. She wasn't sure whether it would be a good career move.
Roger then did some simple math on a napkin. According to him he wrote it down as follows: Line 1: How much Ebert made in a year for doing a syndicated television show. Line 2: Multiply that by 2, because Siskel made the same. Line 3: Times 2 again, because Oprah would be on for an hour instead of 30 minutes. Line 4: Times 5 because she would be on five days a week. Line 5: Times 2, because her ratings would be at least twice as big as "Siskel & Ebert."
Oprah stared at the napkin for 10 seconds before she proclaimed: "Rog, I'm going with King World!"
