Moment #11: Victory in Amarillo, Texas

Aired: 09/11/2012

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Oprah Winfrey holding up a newspaper with "Oprah wins" headline

About This Episode
In 1996, an Oprah Show guest made a comment about beef and mad cow disease that led a trade group of Texas beef producers to file a defamation suit against Oprah. The case came to trial in 1998, and Oprah brought her show on the road instead of shutting down production. She taped for more than a month that year in Amarillo, Texas, spending her days in court and her nights in the studio. On February 26, 1998, jurors found Oprah not guilty. One day later, on February 27, 1998, Oprah celebrated on the show. "She was finally free. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders," says TV Guide Magazine editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum. "This moment was so fantastic that it had to make our top 25 list."