- It's the one and only Oprah Winfrey.
(audience applauding)
- Hey, hey hey.
(audience applauding)
(Drew screaming)
- This is the loudest we've been since we started in August,
just us in a very big room,
kind of starting in an unprecedented time.
Welcome to the show.
Dare I say, maybe you've seen it?
- Yes, I have.
May I say, dare I say, seeing it actually changed my life.
You have changed my life.
You certainly changed my work life because I was there
for that very first show where you beamed
in Cameron and there, you all were.
And we were, you know, didn't know
that you all weren't in the same space.
I watched that and I said,
"Hey, why can't we do what Drew did?"
(Drew laughing)
"Why can't we do what Drew did?"
And since that time, for Oprah conversations, for Apple TV,
the first time I did it was
with president Barack Obama, talking about
his book 'Promised Land'.
And there we were sitting right across from each other
in my living room, in front of the fireplace.
And I said, then, this is because of you, Drew.
So thank you. (audience applauding)
Pioneer woman. (audience applauding)
- I have to thank you so much
because you didn't need to give us the credit, but you did.
And for those who are not aware, here's a little taped piece
on the technology of which Oprah and I are talking about.
When we launched this show in the middle of a pandemic,
we had to get creative.
With the magic of technology, we came up with a way
to transport our guests
from our LA studio right here, to New York.
How cool is that?
We knew one person who thought so too.
It's Oprah! It's Oprah! It's Oprah!
Oprah approves! Oprah likey!
Yes, the Oprah was inspired to use
a similar green screen technology to interview guests
like President Barack Obama.
Listen, we may not be able to be in the same room,
but we can sure feel like it and look like it.
(audience applauding)
- I thank you so much because I'm gonna be really honest,
I haven't really admitted this out loud,
but it was really scary for me to be, you know,
a girl, a woman, I don't know what I am, a female,
asking for people to take this risk
and spend this money and ask ourselves these questions.
And I'm so grateful
to my bosses that they allowed us to do this,
because this was, you know,
a check and a risk away from not happening.
And I want to ask you, is this where we're going?
The water is out of the bottle.
People are not gonna travel the way they used to.
People have gotten comfortable with interview styles.
Some are gonna show up, some aren't,
you're gonna have access to more people
than you ever did in some ways 'cause the technology.
It's all going to be maybe a mixed bag.
And if it is, don't we have to make it the best
and most compelling television in honor of the audience.
- Yeah. I, 1000% agree with that.
And I think, that's why I say you really have,
you literally have changed my life.
And I've had people say that.
I said, listen, "After Drew, I'm not going nowhere."
(audience laughing) And so the truth is,
you're able to have better access.
And I think there will certainly be times in both
of our lives and in our careers when being directly
in front of the person makes a world
of difference and may maybe necessary.
But I think that in terms of having access
to anybody in the world at any time, what you all did
in that first show lit, the path for changing it forever.
And I'm sure we would have done it today, but I, you know
I'm where there's no studio.
So I'm like in the middle of nowhere out here.
You need a studio to be able to do it.
- You really do. - So if there was a studio
within 500 miles I would have done it.
- I'm so glad.
And may we do it again in the future.
Because I was so glad to see you embracing this,
you acknowledging us and us moving forward in this way,
because it does become a new normal.
And it, for the girl who felt really, honestly, again
this is the part I don't talk about,
is when you're fighting for things in business,
it's not comfortable, especially when they're not done.
You feel like the messy one, you feel
like the one who might be spending people's money
in a improper way.
You don't know if the risk is gonna pay off
but you get into your convictions and you fight for them.
And so when I saw you embracing the technology,
it told that person who hung up the phone that day.
'Cause I remember saying, "Listen, you guys,
we have got to do this.
We have got to find a new way for our future of television.
This is not funny.
We are in a really unprecedented time
and we can't go on with the home show forever.
We just can't."
- You did the thing that I had to do a thousand times
over the years.
And when I first started,
so let me applaud you for doing the thing that every person,
particularly every woman,
needs to learn as soon as possible.
Your gut is right for you.
So when you feel something in your gut and you think,
"Wow, I need to, I need to really move on that,"
that means it is right for you.
It doesn't mean that it is right for everybody else.
And I think it takes women in particularly,
a long long time to be affirmed in their own beliefs.
And that is the reason actually we were the number
one talk show for 25 years,
is because it always came back to, what do I feel?
What do I feel is my real intention in doing this?
And I cannot do it if it's not true to me.
Even if everybody else says, and many times, you know, Drew,
producers would come in with ideas,
and I would say, "I can't do that.
I don't know how I can sit in that chair
and keep a straight face and do that.
(audience and Drew laughing)
I'm not gonna be able to do that."
So I applaud you for going with your gut.
'Cause your gut is always right for you.
- Well, I think you've given so much courage to everyone,
especially women, to fight for what we believe in.
And I was gonna ask you if you had any advice.
May I ask when you ended your first season,
and you knew you were rounding the corner in to season two,
what were you telling yourself?
- I actually was telling myself,
"Self, you was right."
Because as, most people don't know this now,
but when we launched in 1986,
I had been a local talk show in Chicago for two years.
What I understood was that there's a common nality,
in our human experience and that people are no different
in Chicago than they are in New York,
than they are in Idaho than they are in Rhode Island,
when it comes to the core.
Now we're in, you know, everybody's so divided
about their politics and their beliefs and so forth,
but I still do believe at the core.
We're all the same.
If you ask blue States, red States, purple States,
what really matters to you?
The answer is the same.
People care about their families.
They care about being able to live decent lives.
They care about being able to do that in comfort,
and do that with a sense of peace.
And I still think in spite of all the craziness,
in spite of all the divisions,
which is what everybody talks about all the time
is that we are more alike than we are different,
which is a very famous Maya Angelou line.
She used to say that all the time.
And in our humanness, we are,
we all are just seeking the same things.
And that's what this platform, the Drew Barrymore Show,
offers every day, is a chance for those of us
of like-mindedness.
Those of us who are seeking the joy,
who wants to wear some bows,
(audience and Oprah laughing)
- I went extra jaunty for you.
I was like, bows and flowers, it's Oprah, like,
I'm surprised I don't have bells on and like a bow.
(upbeat music)