George Burns/Harpo Productions
Oprah Enters Lost Territory: It's Gonna Cost How Much to Advertise on Final Show?!
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Just how much will it cost advertisers to shill their wares to a nation full of mourning TV viewers? Let's just say, they'd better have Oprah money.
The figures are out for the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, and the going rate for a 30-second commercial spot during her May 25 sign-off might even put the Super Bowl to shame.
So just how much are we talking?
According to the Hollywood Reporter, 30 seconds' worth of ad time on the final show is currently selling for $1 million—and that figure could likely grow depending on the advertisement's placement within the show.
Much like other records Oprah has set throughout her 25-year run, the figure is, for a daytime show, completely unheard of.
But not for a prime-time show. So how does Oprah stack up?
Well, in 2004, when Friends signed off with a staggering 52.5 million viewers, advertisers were paying up to twice that amount for a TV spot, with most hovering around the $2 million range.
Six years earlier, the Seinfeld gang allowed sponsors to bid farewell for the relatively low, low cost of $1.42 million (which lends itself to quite the cost-benefit analysis, what with 76.3 million viewers having tuned in).
Everybody Loves Raymond's swan song drew in a similar figure in 2005, asking for $1.22 million per half-minute spot, while just last year it was Lost commanding the big bucks, charging $900,000 per ad.
Which is good news, at least, for Kleenex. Something tells us, ad buy or not, they're going to make out like bandits that day.