Oprah Winfrey made it official on a live episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show today that she’ll end her run in daytime on Sept. 9, 2011, 25 years after her show first went on the air. “I love this show. This show has been my life. And I love it enough to know when it’s time to say good-bye,” she told the audience. “Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It’s the perfect number — the exact right time.”

She did not, however, address her next move, saying only that she hopes people will continue to watch over the next 18 months through to the end of the show’s run. “Over this holiday break, my team and I will be brainstorming new ways that we can entertain you, and inform you and uplift you when we return here in January,” she said. “And then season 25 — we are going to knock your socks off.  So the countdown to the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show starts now and until that day in 2011 when it ends, I intend to soak up every meaningful, joy-filled moment with you.”

Separately, Harpo Prods., which produces the show for CBS Television which syndicates the talk show to 215 U.S. stations and 145 countries, announced that Winfrey will appear and participate in new programming for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network when it launches in January 2011. The cabler is a joint venture with Discovery Communications.