Oprah Winfrey to take studio audience to Australia

CHICAGO — Well, this certainly puts those Pontiacs to shame.

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Oprah Winfrey has a knack for turning the airwaves into the stuff of audience legend and today, during the season premiere for her 25th and, lest you forget, final season, she managed to top even herself.

So forget "everybody gets a car." Here's the new mantra:

"Everybody's going to Australia!"

Yep, it was a very g'day indeed for the 300 audience members of Oprah's farewell season premiere, as each one — chosen by producers and comprising some of her most loyal and dedicated watchers — received an eight-day, all-expenses paid (that's fees and taxes included, someone learned their lesson) trip with Oprah herself to the land down under.

Jealous? Yeah, us too.

"This is really my last chance to do something really big," she teased viewers. "And if you want to do something big, you would want to take along your ultimate viewers."

Cue the hysteria.

"I started to think about where would I most want to go. Maybe I should take all of you with me to the other side of the world…We're going to Australia! We are going to Australia! You and you and you and you, are going to Australia!"

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Well, that's Saturday Night Live's opening sketch sorted.

On hand, as ever, for the momentous announcement was John Travolta, who briefly appeared earlier in the show to receive the title of the audience's favorite Oprah Winfrey Show guest of all time.

His entrance was much better the second time around, incidentally, as he drove a Qantas plane onto the stage in the midst of falling confetti, hysterical audience members, a screaming Oprah and immediately materialized Aussie flags.

"You make everybody feel like they're home," he told his BFF earlier in the show. "Oprah, there's only one of you and there'll never be another one."

It was the first of many moments to come this season (not to mention show) where Oprah got slightly misty eyed.

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The second came at the end of the episode, when producers surprised the host with a performance by Paul Simon, her (cover your ears, Johnny) "favorite, favorite, favorite."

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Simon sang an updated version of the Oprah-centric song he penned 15 years ago, which served as the theme tune for the 10th season of the show. By the end of his three-minutes onstage, Oprah was a teary mess (though she did stop prior to launching into the "ugly cry").

It was actually the second surprise of the show for the big O, as earlier her wily producers had surprised her after a retrospective clip package in which it was revealed that she tried—and "bribed" with Dom Perignon and rhinestone sunglasses—to get Don Johnson as the first guest on the national version of her show.

He turned her down.

Viewers are Oprah's focus during final season

But more than two decades later, the newly minted $50 million man turned up to right his wrongs—and return those shades.

"No they didn't," Oprah said. "No they didn't. No they didn't surprise me!"

Uh, yes they did. Twice.

"I know it's taken about 24 years to get these back to you, but…" Johnson said, handing over the cool-back-then (allegedly) sunglasses.

"Now for clarity, I was shooting about 18 to 20 hours a day at the time," he said by way of explaining away his ill-advised slight. "But I understand things are going OK for you."

That's certainly one word for it.