-By Marc Berman

That decade old rumor about Oprah leaving first-run syndication is back in full force with new speculation about the Queen of Talk exiting stations in daytime in 2011 for an exclusive run on her upcoming new cable network, OWN: the Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture with Discovery Communications.  

OWN would certainly benefit, of course, by a daily dose of parent Oprah.  

But the move is risky, with potential audience defections a strong possibility on another platform. Based on national ratings from Nielsen Media Research for the most current week of Oct. 19, Oprah led the talk show pack for the 547th consecutive week (translation: over 10 years), with 6.94 million viewers.  
 
According to CBS Television Distribution: "Nothing has changed. The decision is Oprah’s to make. As we have stated repeatedly, we love Oprah and if she wants to continue her show then we want to continue to be in business with her.”

Oprah has publicly stated she will decide by the end of 2009 whether to continue her syndicated talk show beyond next season, when her deal with CBS expires, or shift entirely to cable.