BREAKING. Oprah Winfrey to become CEO as well as chief creative officer at her Oprah Winfrey (OWN) network.

With the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show going out in South Africa on SABC3 tomorrow evening in primetime at 19:30, Oprah Winfrey is set to become the new chief executive officer (CEO) at her own TV channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), The Wall Street Journal reports.

Citing unnamed sources involved with the venure, the business newspaper says Oprah Winfrey will become the new CEO and also serve as the chief creative officer of the TV channel that's been facing an uphill battle for viewership in America. Until now Oprah Winfrey has functioned as the chairperson of OWN, but becoming CEO will mean that she'll be taking a more direct hands-on approach in the day to day running of the TV channel.

Besides management duties and responsibilities Oprah Winfrey is likely to start a new kind of talk show on OWN in 2012.

UPDATE Wednesday 13 July 16:55 - OWN just confirmed the news that Oprah Winfrey is becoming the new CEO and chief creative officer and that Sheri Selata and Erik Logan, currently presidents of Harpo Studios will now become presidents of OWN, effective immediately.

''All future television production at Harpo will be directed exclusively to OWN, strengthening the alignment and programming mission of both companies,'' says OWN in a just issued press release.

''I'm ready to dedicate my full creative energy and focus as the full time CEO of OWN,'' says Oprah Winfrey. ''By aligning the mission, talent and leadership of Erik, Sheri, the OWN team, the Harpo team, along with expertise of David Zaslav, Peter and all of Discovery behind us, we can unleash the full potential of the network.''

No Oprah museum for all her talk show gifts and letters, says Oprah Winfrey ... who now has another plan for her show's memorabilia.

You're reading it here first.

Although production staff of talk show host Oprah Winfrey keeps asking the talk titan whether she's ''ever going to do a museum'' with all her talk show memorabilia, Oprah Winfrey's answer is an emphatic ''no''.

The Oprah Winfrey Show (SABC3, weekdays, 17:30) is wrapping up its 25th and final ''farewell season'' with the queen of talk who've amassed a wealth of letters, drawings, cards, photos and a wide variety of treasured keepsakes that famous guests and viewers have sent her over the past two and a half decades. Once she for instance lamented the absence of the existence of angel dolls that's black, and viewers started sending her some. Then there's the walls of the corridors at Harpo Studios in Chicago that's lined with thousands of photos – each showing Oprah Winfrey and the thousands of famous guests and often ordinary people – who've visited the show.

''Why would I do a museum?'' remarks Oprah Winfrey in the behind-the-scenes reality show Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes. ''What I've decided to do is to have in this new house that I'm building, to have a corridor. So that when you go down the corridor you can look at interesting things – like my guitar from The Edge [from rock band U2]. From over the years I have several guitars,'' she says.

She recently added a letter from movie star Hugh Jackman to her Famous Letters Box that stands in a corner in her Harpo office. Hugh Jackman wrote Oprah Winfrey a thank you card after his recent appearance on her show during her weeklong whirlwind visit to Australia and also sent her a team T-shirt that was added to the box. ''I've got everybody in there,'' says Oprah Winfrey. ''I've got to figure out a way to do them. Put them all in a book, or frame them.''

She initially thought about possibly doing a room with her prized Oprah Show memorabilia but have now opted for a corridor. ''I thought, 'Okay, build a room to put all this stuff in' like the guitars from Dolly Parton and Babyface. But it's better to place them around rather, so that they're interestingly placed. If you do put it all together, then it does start to look like a museum, and then it's no longer interesting,'' she says. ''People will go, 'You have a museum in your house', and that's not good.''

Programming note: The Oprah Winfrey Show back to its 17:30 timeslot on SABC3 from today; new episodes now 5 days a week.

Not only is The Oprah Winfrey Show on SABC3 back from today and this week in its regular timeslot of 17:30 (its actually 5 minutes earlier and no longer at 17:35) but its also going with new episodes 5 days a week and adding a new episode on Fridays from now on to try and catch up with the 25th ''Farewell Season'' in America.

Today The Oprah Winfrey Show is about Lori and Chris Coble who've lost their three young children in a horrific car accident. One year later... an absolutely miraculous twist of fate you have to see to believe.
Tuesday (5 April) has ''America's worst cooks rescued by Jessica Seinfeld''.
Wednesday (6 April) sees the legendary Jane Fonda (72) visit Oprah, with the icon talking about ageing, motherhood, her ex-husband Ted Turner and her new love.
Thursday (7 April) for the first time in 45 years The Oprah Winfrey Show reunites the entire cast of the musical The Sound of Music. Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and all of the Von Trapp children meet for the first time in 45 years.
Friday (8 April) in a brand-new episode that will henceforth also go out on this day of the week, viewers will get part one of ''Oprah and Gayle's Big Yosemite camping Adventure''. They head to Yosemite National Park to go and surprise a park ranger.

BREAKING. The very final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show to be broadcast in America on Wednesday 25 May.

The very final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in America will be broadcast on Wednesday 25 May, Harpo Studios in Chicago where the show is produced, just announced.

The Oprah Winfrey Show is shown on SABC3 in South Africa, by M-Net elsewhere in Africa and is seen in 145 other countries in the world. Oprah started its 25th and final ''Farewell Season'' last month on SABC3. That's after the public broadcaster said since late 2010 that it wanted to try and speed up the acquisition and broadcasting schedule of the current season so that Oprah could end in South Africa at the same time as in America. With only two months left until 25 May, SABC3 won't be able to catch-up in time.

Oprah Winfrey tweeted Thursday that she's ''hard at work planning the final shows''.

Just guess where those Oprah Show tapes are that's destined for South Africa? It's being held up by customs. In Amsterdam.

Do you want to know a secret?

Of course, and I'm the only one who can tell you this: Those late video cassettes of the 25th and final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show that was supposed to start this Tuesday on SABC3 is now being held up by customs. In Amsterdam. Like in the Netherlands. True.

First the snow in America and now European bureaucracy. Its interesting to note that the Survivor Gabon video cassettes that were late at the end of December that created embarrassement when SABC3 had to postpone that show by a week as well as Oprah are both distributed by the very same company. Yep. CBS Studios International. And now Oprah is the second SABC3 show to be affected in serial order by snow and then getting delayed in Europe. 

Insider sources tell me SABC3 expect the video cassettes to arrive over the weekend and that the new Oprah season - her ''farewell season'' can start this coming Monday. At least viewers can look forward to a new, live Oprah Winfrey interview tomorrow (Friday) on Morning Joe on MSNBC (TopTV 410) between 14:00 and 16:00 from Chicago.

ALSO READ: Why broadcasters use (and prefer) a system of video cassettes to play out TV shows.