Oprah Winfrey Makes a Surprise Appearance on 'Your OWN Show' (VIDEO)

For twenty-five years we saw the power Oprah Winfrey held over her studio audiences. The excitement levels reached Beatles level at times, with people screaming and collapsing. So while she may be off on her OWN network now, It's nice to see she can still bring an audience to exuberant tears.

Her targets this time were the contestants on 'Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star' (Fri., 9PM on OWN). You would have thought the contestants would have to figure there's a decent chance she would show up, but if they had any inkling, they certainly hadn't prepared themselves.

Any sense of decorum and competitive spirit vanished as soon as Winfrey appeared. "I wanted to come because I want to say I know a few things about talk shows," she said.

Winfrey went on to offer words of encouragement to the ten finalists, but we're not sure how much of it they were hearing. After she hugged them, one of them reached out to touch her one more time as she was walking away. We think they were too lost in the moment to grasp anything she might say.