(NOTE: Each link opens in a new window)

Television's top talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, has had second thoughts about retiring.

Winfrey extended her contract with King World Productions by two more years, taking her through the 2007-2008 television season, and agreed to make more shows over the next few years than planned, it was announced Monday.

At her last contract extension, Winfrey, 49, had said she would quit her show after the 2005-2006 season.

"It's fulfilling being able to do this kind of television," Winfrey said in a prepared statement, "and I believe continuing to have a voice and a platform to speak to the world is still the right thing to do."

After a few years of decline, ratings for "The Oprah Winfrey Show" have increased this year. She also has seen her one-time protégé, Dr. Phil McGraw, launch his own successful talk show.

Winfrey had planned to cut back from 145 original shows a year to 100 in 2004 and 75 in 2005. Now she will do 130 shows per year for the last four years of the deal, King said.

Despite Winfrey's plans to call it quits, Roger King, chief executive officer of King World, said he never stopped asking her to stay. He said he sensed a change after Winfrey went to Africa last year to help the poor.

"I think she came back reinvigorated, knowing that her vision is right, and she wants to stay with it," King said.

She's also left open the possibility of continuing beyond 2008, he said.  BACK TO THE TOP