Who Will Replace Oprah as America's Life Coach?

Few would disagree that Oprah Winfrey—talk show host, media mogul, guru to enlightenment-seeking housewives everywhere—is one of the most influential taste-makers of the past, oh, fifty years or so. Oprah's reach is everywhere. Her hands can be found in food, in home design, in books, in pop-philosophy (remember Eat, Pray, Love and The Secret), in politics. And the main platform she's used to launch all of her ideas and ideologies and likes and dislikes for the past 25 years has been her wildly successful afternoon talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The program was her big, soft-focus stage to discuss everything from Tom Cruise's couch-jumpy new love for a girlfriend to what book she was into at the moment (guaranteeing it would go on to become a wild bestseller) to the latest terrifying murder/kidnapping/whatever case that was gripping the news. People tuned in to find out just what Oprah was going to say about a particular topic, and, for not a small few, her words helped form their own opinions.

So we're left pondering, then, just what the heck America is going to do after 2011, when Oprah will shutter the show in pursuit of new opportunities on cable. I mean, don't go crazy with panic. Oprah will still be around. Oh, yes, she'll still be here. But in the realm of mainstream, network TV, every-afternoon-every-day life-coaching? Oprah seems to be willing to cede that throne to someone else. So who's it going to be?

Well clearly she has an obvious admirer in Tyra Banks, whose own successful chat show has taken on the appearance of some strange, out-of-control cousin of Oprah's relatively staid program. Though it's clear that Ty-Ty has designs on becoming America's Next Top Afternoon Mensch, I just think she's too maybe-crazy, too megalomaniacal to fill the Ope's deceptively down-to-earth mass-appeal shoes. She's a niche horrorshow, an inspiration for those people who don't really take inspiring talk shows all that seriously.

Winfrey's own protege Rachael Ray, though possessing of a broadly-defined talk show success of her own, is more in line to become the nouveau, less-finicky Martha Stewart of her generation. She doesn't have quite the far-reaching interests that brought Oprah, by virtue of her wanting to explore the topics for herself, to the forefront of our big, sloppy national Conversation About Stuff. I mean, could Rae-Ray have an entire episode that's simply about My Favorite Things and have all of America go batshit bonkers? I don't think so.

So honestly we here at TV.com are stumped. Who do you think might be able to replace Oprah as our go-to advice-, wisdom-, solace-, comfort-giver? Can anyone hope to ever even come close to her mind-boggling influence?