Oprah Winfrey has announced the Oprah Winfrey Show will come to an end next season. She made the emotional announcement at the end of her show Friday, saying she wanted to get ahead of any speculation about why she's ending the show. Winfrey told the audience that after 25 seasons, it's time to say goodbye.

"After much prayer and months of careful thought I've decided that next season will be the last season of the Oprah Winfrey show."

Winfrey, 55, is widely expected to start up a new talk show on The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), a much-delayed 50-50 joint venture with Discovery Communications that is projected to debut in January 2011.

In daytime, her show is head and shoulders above all other talk shows, with 6.8 million viewers on average in the last couple months, compared with "Dr. Phil" with 3.8 million, "Ellen" at 2.8 million and "Dr. Oz" with 3.5 million, according to The Nielsen Company.

Even with such a lead, her ratings have been falling over the years, with an average audience cut in half from 12.6 million in 1991-92 to 6.2 million in 2008-2009. That decline in audience numbers argued for a move to cable where audiences are increasingly finding niche programming.

"Here is the real reason: I love this show. This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when its time to say goodbye," Winfrey said.

Meanwhile, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn hopes popular demand will convince Winfrey to stay in Chicago. Quinn calls Winfrey a "force of nature" for the city, the state, the country and the world.

Oprah airs on TV-6 week days at 3:00.