On the whole, searches for Oprah are up 56% this week on Yahoo.

This month, some of the top search terms are about Oprah. The hottest Oprah related search is “Oprah middle name.” (Gail, FYI) Other hot searches according to Yahoo:

• What college did Oprah attend? (Tennessee State University)
• How much is Oprah worth? ($2.7 billion according to Forbes)
• Why is the Oprah show ending? (nobody really knows, but Oprah has hinted that she feels like it has just run its course)
• How tall is Oprah Winfrey? (5 feet, 6 inches)

There is an obvious “Oprah Effect” when it comes to search as well. And whenever Dr. Oz talks about a product on her show, searches spike. When he discussed “steel cut oatmeal” searches increased 5,400% on Yahoo. When Dr. Oz demonstrated the use of a “neti pot” it spiked 12,325% as a search term. The search “buy neti pot” jumped 42,480%. The woman can make people do things – that’s a fact.

One of Oprah’s segments on her show that has caused the most buzz and parody is her “favorite things” episodes, where she gives the studio audience a bunch of stuff for no reason. People freak out, cry, scream and writhe about in giddy ecstasy. It’s quite the spectacle to behold. She’s given audience members everything from iPods to brand new cars. Last November, when the favorite things show aired, Yahoo searches exploded for Oprah.

So what’s the demographic of most of the people searching for Oprah? 73% are women. The 35-44 year-old age group is the one most searching for her. This month, Illinois is the top state for searches, which is no surprise considering her Chicago connection. The next most Oprah crazed states are Missouri, Michigan, California, and Georgia.

This week, Oprah is filming her final episodes. The two-part penultimate episodes are being called the “surprise Oprah” episodes and feature a who’s who list of Hollywood and other pop-culture elite. The first part will air May 23rd and is hosted by Tom Hanks. The second part will air May 24th and is hosted by Will Smith.

With her final shows approaching, Yahoo is not the only place where Oprah has surged in search volume. The search volume for “Oprah” and “Oprah Winfrey” has more than doubled in Google as well, according to Google Trends:

This week, searches for “when is Oprah’s last show” are also off the charts according to Yahoo. They say that 1/3 of these searches are being performed by men. So to answer that question – it will air on May 25th.

The theme of the two shows that were filmed yesterday was “Surprise Oprah” and basically involved everyone who’s everyone in Hollywood joining together to honor the living legend that is Oprah.

The first hour long show was hosted by Tom Hanks. It involved appearances by Tom Cruise, Beyonce, Halle Berry, Madonna, Josh Groban, Dakota Fanning and many more.

The second show was hosted by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. It included appearances by Michael Jordan, Stevie Wonder, Jerry Seinfeld, Simon Cowell, Maria Shriver and Maya Angelou among many others.

So if you are a celebrity, you were in Chicago last night.

The Hollywood Reporter has a very detailed play-by-play of the taping. The two “Surprise Oprah” shows will air on May 23rd and 24th

Here’s how the people involved in the shows have discussed the experience on Twitter:

Image Courtesy The Hollywood Reporter

CNN is also an unlikely contender after acquiring procuring control of CNNbrk, an account set up by a fan to tweet news breaking on CNN. Likely that account was attractive because of the 970,000 followers the account’s owner, James Cox, had amassed. But as our own Chris Crum has reported, that appears to be an illegal move, though Twitter has yet to take any action against it.

Meanwhile, over night “basementdad,” a spoof Twitter account set up in the name of Joseph Frieschel, has grabbed 200,000 followers as a result of a protest campaign set up by the anonymous frequenters of 4chan, a notorious image forum most famous for hacking, staging Scientology headaches, and a highly offensive sense of humor based on shock value. That last characteristic is fairly evident in the person they’ve chosen to spoof on Twitter. Frieschel’s claim to fame is being arrested for holding his daughter prisoner in a basement and sexually abusing her for a quarter of a century.

Stuck at 200,000 or so followers, the basement dad group is promoting a special script to help create accounts and artificially inflate the follower count. (No links. Just a run a search on "basementdad " and you’ll find it.)

You’ll notice Oprah Winfrey’s account is devoid of any tweets at this point. Regardless, she already has 29,000 followers. Likely the account was very recently set up (she didn’t, after all, even know about YouTube until last summer or something). Robert Scoble says she’ll be talking about Twitter on her show tomorrow, and everybody knows that when Oprah tells her audience they should do something, they know they’d better stinkin’ do it!

My money’s on Oprah, from behind, approximately one hour after her show airs tomorrow. All hail the power of Oprah. 
 

OWN will launch in mid-2009 in 70 million homes, on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel. The venture will include Oprah.com. Winfrey will have editorial control over the joint venture and will be responsible for the network’s programming and branding.

"Fifteen years ago, I wrote in my journal that one day I would create a television network, as I always felt my show was just the beginning of what the future could hold," said Oprah Winfrey, who will serve as chairman of OWN.

"For me, the launch of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Network’ is the evolution of the work I’ve been doing on television all these years and a natural extension of my show."

Oprah’s talk show will not be moving to the network anytime soon. The show is syndicated to TV stations through the 2010-2011 season. It’s not clear after that if it will move to the new network and it is not a requirement in the deal with Discovery.

Winfrey will act as chairman of the network and the venture will be equally owned by Discovery and Oprah’s company Harpo. This is a cashless transaction and OWN will be an independent company.

Discovery will handle the distribution, origination and other operational requirements for the venture.