It’s been 25 years. “The Godmother” Oprah Winfrey will take her show off broadcast TV in what might be ploy to jumpstart her own OWN network while taking a billion dollar bite out of the other “families” ABC and CBS.

By Jeffrey Jolson

Oprah major stategic move or just a little rest?

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Today) 9/20/08 – Oprah is considered by many to be the most influential woman in the world, mainly due to the “Oprah” TV show, the highest rated talk show ever (over 100 million viewers for the 1993 Michael Jackson interview) After 25 years as a TV staple, Oprah Winfrey will end her popular and influential TV show in September 2011.

Oprah, 55, will explain why she is quitting on her Friday show. One reason is likely the 2 ½ decades doing the same show (with some re-tooling along the way) has given her reason to take a deep bow and get a little rest. Reinvent herself as it were.

She would have more time to work with her charities – she is after all the most philanthropic Africa American ever. Yet she can afford it. She has been listed at times the wealthiest black person of the 20^th Century and the world’s first black billionaire, though we imagine there are some oil-rich kings out there.

Why do you think she’s leaving? Comment below.

But don’t expect her to stay out of the game for long, This workaholic will likely put a reworked, revamped version of the show on her own new cable network, OWN, a Los Angeles-based joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc.

OWN was targeting a reach of 70 million, a figure that would be easily met and even surpassed if network had the one and only Oprah show to dangle before cable and satellite providers.

ABC-TV is not keen on losing its cash machine “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” nor is CBS Distribution which syndicates it.

It would be like “The Godfather,” where all competitors to the Family were dealt with in a day, and the Winfrey Family took over the syndicates.

An official notice went out to TV stations carrying Oprah from the president of her Harpo Inc., Tim Bennett. The statement said the Godmother herself would explain all on Friday, though they didn’t really call her that.

said in a statement posted on websites of TV stations airing the program that Winfrey would make the official announcement on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Friday, as well as disclose the reasons behind the decision.

“The Oprah Winfrey Show,” broadcast from Chicago on ABC stations across the United States and on various channels worldwide, is one of the TV industry’s biggest money-makers and the top-rated U.S. daytime talk show, averaging 7.1 million viewers this year.