Oprah Still #1 Celebrity

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jun 12, 2008 3:36PM

In what can only be described as the upset of the decade, Forbes has named Oprah Winfrey its #1 celebrity on the magazine's annual Celebrity 100 list. She...won last year, too.

To generate the list, Forbes estimates celebrity earnings, then factors in media metrics like Google hits, press mentions as compiled by Factiva, TV/radio mentions from Lexis/Nexis and the number of times an A-lister appears on the cover of more than 50 consumer magazines.

Oprah is the second-highest earning celeb, behind only J.K. Rowling; she's second on the "web hits" category behind Angelina Jolie; a shoddy fifth in press mentions, behind Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, David Beckham, and racecar driver Fernando Alonso; and stone-cold first in "TV mentions."

Rounding out the top ten are Tiger Woods, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce Knowles, David Beckham, Johnny Depp, Jay-Z, The Police, J.K. Rowling, and Brad Pitt. Michael Jordan is 18th, Tina Fey 99th, and if there are other celebs on the list with even tenuous Chicago connections, none jumped out at me.

Too bad Oprah has been in reruns the last few weeks. Blerg.[Forbes]