Oprah Winfrey Calls 1998 Theme Song a Career Mistake in New Podcast

Q: Why did a resurfaced Whitney Houston clip force Oprah to finally confess to a disastrous 1998 career mistake?

The resurfaced Whitney Houston clip revived attention to Oprah Winfrey’s 1998 decision to sing her own show’s theme song, pushing Winfrey to openly admit it was a career mistake. On Keke Palmer’s podcast, Winfrey said the song, “Run On,” came from a serious moment in her life when she was considering ending *The Oprah Winfrey Show*. After praying, she felt she should continue, and chose an old spiritual as the basis for a new theme. But she said the idea failed because, in her words, “I can’t sing,” even after taking lessons. Producers tried to cover her vocals with a loud church choir, but she said that “didn’t work.” The Houston clip mattered because it made the old embarrassment newly visible. Footage of Houston repeatedly teasing Winfrey about the song on her show recently went viral online, bringing “Run On” back into public conversation. With the theme song once again being mocked and discussed, Winfrey finally addressed it directly and called recording it “one of the mistakes of my career.” Her confession matched the historical outcome: “Run On” lasted only one season, from 1998 to 1999, before being dropped. Palmer tried to soften the criticism by saying it “wasn’t that bad,” but Winfrey rejected that defense and said plainly that it was bad.

3 articles · Updated · The Independent · Jul 24

Oprah Winfrey said on Keke Palmer’s podcast that recording and performing “Run On” for The Oprah Winfrey Show was “one of the mistakes” of her career.
Palmer’s teasing about the song prompted Winfrey to revisit the 1998 decision, saying she tried singing lessons and even added a loud church choir, but “that didn’t work.”
The reworked Black spiritual served as the show’s theme for just 1 season, from 1998 to 1999, before being dropped.
Archive clips of Whitney Houston mocking the song across multiple show appearances have recently revived attention to the episode, which Winfrey had already joked embarrassed her in 1999.
The admission adds to Winfrey’s recent public reassessments, after her January apology for helping shape diet culture over the past 30 years.