Oprah Gives Entire Audience New Cars

By Benjy Lipsman in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 14, 2004 3:13PM

Chicagoist thought it was cool when a friend's mom got a free iPod for being an Oprah audience member last year. But Oprah really raised the stakes in the swag department yesterday.

Oprah gave away a brand new Pontiac G6 to every single member of the studio audience.

Oprah began the show by giving 11 invited audience members brand new cars. These guests included a couple who's two cars had close to 400,000 miles; a popular teacher whose car often broke down; and a woman whose car "looks like she got into a gunfight."

Oprah then announced there was a 12th car, and the winning key would be in one of the gift boxes distributed to all audience members. But when everybody opened their boxes, every single box contained a key! Yes, Oprah gave away 276 Pontiacs on her show. $7 million worth of cars -- and Pontiac is even picking up the tab on the taxes!

After taking the audience out to the Harpo parking lot to see their new cars, she showed a segments detailing how the surprise was carried out, including her visit to the factory, the special curtains surrounding the lot; and the trucking in of the cars under cover of night. Chicagoist is still not sure how nobody got wind of this after 15 semis full of Pontiacs converged on Oprah's west side studios. And how shafted does today's audience feel?