Michael King, the man who helped launch Oprah, dead at 66
REED SAXON/APRoseanne Barr laughs as King World CEO Michael King listens during a 1998 event. King died Wednesday at 66.
The kingmaker of TV syndication is dead.
Michael King, the man who helped launch Oprah, Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray to TV stardom, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 66.
King, who had been treated in the intensive care unit at Cedars Sinai Medical Focal point in West Hollywood for nearly three weeks, was taken off life support after being admitted with pneumonia, TMZ reported.
The New Jersey-born TV mogul had been a part-title-holder of the New York Yankees, New Jersey Nets and New Jersey Devils.
Brothers Roger and Michael King were two of the six siblings who inherited King World Productions from their father, Charles King, and the driving force behind bringing “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to syndication and redefining daytime TV in the 1980s.
King World, along with Harpo Productions, also turned Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray into daytime staples.
Ron Galella/WireImageBrothers Roger and Michael King (r.) were two of the six siblings who inherited King World Productions from their father, Charles King, and the driving force behind bringing “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to syndication and redefining daytime TV in the 1980s. Shown here in 1995.
© Lee Celano / Reuters
Whoopi Goldberg (l.) with King World Production’s Chairman and CEO Michael King.
CHARLIE BENNETT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oprah Winfrey joins Roger King (l.) and Joseph Ahern (r.) former general administrator of WLS-TV, in 1985.
George Best/Getty Images
The New York offices of King World Productions, which syndicate such television shows as Hollywood Squares, Wheel of Fortune and the Oprah Winfrey Show, seen in 2002.
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Roger and Michael King were the company’s co-chairmen. They also bought the rights to “Wheel of Fortune” and “Difficulty!” and turned them into two of the most successful game shows of all time.
The brothers grew the company from one that sold “The Small Rascals” reruns at a small office in Summit, N.J., to one with more than $ 100 million in annual revenue and a lineup of talk and game shows that accounted for more than 100 million viewers each day.
CBS bought King World in 2000.
Roger King died in 2007.
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