THE DEFINITIVE REVIEW PREVIEW: The Oprah Winfrey finale tonight on SABC3 at 19:30 is a fine, must-see TV hour.

If you've ever watched The Oprah Winfrey Show, you'd want to watch tonight. Hold those tissues handy; yes, there might be a tear.

After 25 years the final episode of The Oprah Show is tonight on SABC3 at 19:30. I've watched it and I can give you the definitive review preview of tonight's must-see TV hour.

''We decided to do what we do best – and that is a show about, and with, everyday people. This show always will allow people, hopefully to understand the power they have to change their own lives. If there's to be one thread running through every show we do, it's the thread that you – you – are not alone.''

It's with this highly nostalgic opening clip from her very first episode on 8 September 1986 – her effervescent personality on full display and in hindsight an indicator of the shape of things to come – that Oprah Winfrey and the very final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show will start tonight on SABC3 at 19:30.

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In a riveting, must-see, and nearly as perfect an hour as television can produce when the medium does a great goodbye, the queen of talk will take her bow this evening on South African television in a sterling hour filled with pure vintage Winfrey.

Oprah Winfrey will walk out with a packed Harpo Studios audience giving rousing, standing applause. Then, for the hour, she will share what her viewers and the platform of her talk show has meant to her for 25 years and what she has learned from doing The Oprah Winfrey Show. For longtime viewers and loyal fans who've watched and grew up and old with her over many South African afternoons the past 17 years, the hour will seem like minutes.

''There are no words to match this moment. Every word I've ever spoken from this stage of The Oprah Show for 4 561 days of my life is what this moment is all about. From day one Chicago you took me in. I heard you sayin' 'Did you all see that black girl on TV named Ofrah?''

In this fine final hour this evening Oprah Winfrey has clips of her bad outfits, her big hair and as she says, ''earring the size of napkins''. She shares what she's learned ''while I listened and grew, and you with me''. ''There will be no guests, there will be no makeovers, there will be no surprises. You will not be getting a car. This last hour is really about me saying thank you. I want to leave you all with the lessons that have been the anchor for my life and the ones that I hold most precious.''

''I took my last drive in from home to Harpo Studios this morning to do an Oprah Show. I've done it thousands of times with the anticipation of knowing you all will be here. And today is the last time,'' she says.

Tonight's final Oprah is filled with many emotional moments like Oprah Winfrey who has her 4th grade teacher, Ms Duncan in her final audience. ''My 4th grade teacher Ms Duncan was my first true liberator. She made me feel that I mattered,'' says Oprah Winfrey who makes Mrs Duncan stand up and then thanks her.

''There's no co-incidences in life. I'm truly amazed that I – who started out in rural Mississippi in 1954 when the vision for a black girl was limited to either being a maid or a teacher in a segregated school – could end up here. It is no co-incidence that a lonely little girl who felt not a lot of love although my parents and grandparents did the best they could – that I could grow up to feel the genuine kindness, affection, trust and validation from millions of you around the world. You and this show have been the great love of my life.''

''You all have been a safe harbour for me. For 25 years. What I hope is that you all will be that safe harbour for somebody else – their safe place to fall.''

''I thank you for tuning in every day. I thank you for being as much of a sweet inspiration for me as I've tried to be for you. I won't say goodbye, I'll say til we meet again.''

The Oprah Winfrey Show finale, SABC3, Thursday 14 July, 19:30

ALSO READ: Oprah's final 'aha' moments: A round-up of the best pieces of wisdom she's sharing in tonight's final episode.