The producer of Oprah Winfrey’s $8M car giveaway reveals the ‘devastating’ reality that winners faced off-camera.
Back in 2004, the talk show gave each member of her audience a Pontiac G6, to uproarious applause.
But as excited as the crowd was, their joy soon turned to shock when reality hit off-camera.
A producer who worked on Oprah’s show has opened up about what went down.
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How a car giveaway on Oprah Winfrey’s show went so wrong
Back in 2004, Oprah Winfrey made TV history with a $8 million car giveaway.
It all began when Oprah’s best friend, Gayle King, ended up sitting next to an executive from Pontiac on a flight.
The two ended up chatting, and this led to Pontiac proposing to give away 25 free cars on Oprah’s show.
With millions and millions of people watching Oprah’s show each day, it’d be a huge promotional boost for them.
After some negotiating, Pontiac ended up agreeing to provide cars to every single audience member.
When it came time car to give the cars away, it got a huge reaction from the crowd.
People were screaming, hugging each other, and jumping around.
It was a memorable piece of TV history.
But things began unravelling afterwards.
One of Oprah’s producers, Lisa Erspamer discussed the fall-out on a three-part podcast titled Making Oprah: The Inside Story of a TV Revolution.
“It was devastating after, because ‘gift tax’ is a thing, and it’s always a complicated thing when you’re giving stuff away,” Erspamer said.
“But we paid for the sales tax and the registration for each car, and we told the audience after, if they didn’t want to have to pay a gift tax, they could actually take cash for the car.
“And because we didn’t pay the gift tax, people complained to the press, and that was devastating.”
With gift tax bills of up to $7,000, it’s understandable why some people might have felt stung by the gift.
Celebrities are often very generous
Celebrities are known for their generosity, and as it any wonder with the amount of money they have?
You may recall that Dwayne Johnson gave his dad a $60,000 truck as a show of appreciation.
Taylor Swift is constantly making headlines for her bountiful spending, whether it be bonuses for truck drivers or hotel rooms at the Four Seasons.
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