Oprah's 'Favorite Things': By the numbers

The talk show host's final holiday shopping guide was bigger, longer, and more lavish (cars! cruises! iPads!) than ever before

Oprah sent her audience members into an almost alarming frenzy when she announced that each would receive a 2012 VW Beetle.
(Image credit: Screen shot)

Oprah Winfrey has ended the final season of her talk show "with a bang," devoting two full episodes to her annual holiday shopping list of "Favorite Things." The lucky, stunned studio audience members came away with gifts — including new cars and Caribbean cruises — that far exceeded the bounty of years past. (Watch their reaction.) Here's a brief guide, by the numbers:

2

Episodes devoted to this year's "Favorite Things"

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45

Total number of gifts — including an iPad Scrabble app ($4.99), an iPad ($499 and up), a Sony Bravia 3D television ($3,600), and Beecher's "World's Best" Mac 'N' Cheese ($29) — that audience members received (split between those attending the two separate tapings)

$36,837

Approximate total value of the 45 individual items

$8,582.35

Approximate value of the gift package given away on Oprah's 2007 "Favorite Things" episode

$18,900

Projected price tag of the 2012 VW Beetle 2012 audience members received this year

275

Number of audience members who received the cars

$0

Amount in taxes the audience members will pay on their new cars — VW is covering the fees

40 million

Number of American viewers that "The Oprah Winfrey Show" attracts each week

1,000 percent

Boost in sales seen by the makers of the Clarisonic Skin Care System, over three years, after Winfrey included the product line in her 2007 "Favorite Things" giveaway

6 weeks

Advance warning Beecher's Handmade Cheese, a small Seattle purveyor, received that Winfrey would be featuring their "World's Best" Mac 'N' Cheese this year

20,000

Number of hits Beecher's website received in the first hour after the show aired in Seattle

11

Number of food items, or items related to food preparation, included in this year's "Favorite Things"

1

Number of books related to weight loss that were featured in the giveaway

Sources: Oprah.com, Digg, New York Times, Bloomberg, King5.com, Beecher's Handmade Cheese, Gawker TV

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