Oprah Winfrey

Rural Mississippi native worked TV news circuit in Nashville, Baltimore. Turned faltering Chicago morning show into much-loved talk show. Nationally launched The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986, Oprah Winfrey's magic has rubbed off on Weight Watchers. Since the media mogul bought a 10% stake in the diet empire in October 2015, its stock is up some 90%. The long-reigning queen of daytime TV has also proven she can thrive without a talk show. Her cable network, OWN, delivered its most-watched year in 2015, following four years of double-digit viewership growth, according to Nielsen. Next up: miniseries Queen Sugar, coproduced with Selma collaborator Ava DuVernay, and TV drama Greenleaf, about a Tennessee megachurch.