<p>Well in the 1980s, she just had a normal midday talk show, and there’s no reason that hers succeeded while others’ failed. The only thing I can think of that differentiated her early on was her story: she’s from a rather poor side of Chicago, and now (80’s) she’s a moderately successful black, female talk show host. That inspires women, and they want to know how she did it, so they’ll tune in to watch what she has to say, and eventually continue to watch for the actual content. Word of mouth gets around, and then she’s the first lady billionaire.</p>