The famous moment when Oprah gave her audience cars ended with a $6,000 to $7,000 fee for the winners

When Oprah gave cars out to her audience back in 2004, it made TV history – but cost winners between $6,000 and $7,000 each.

It’s a moment that lives on in memes and gifs across the internet.

Oprah yelling: “You get a car,” while her audience jumps around in a frenzy, is etched into our collective memory.

But after the cameras stopped rolling, things got a lot more complicated for everyone involved.

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Oprah gave away cars to her audience members, but a hefty fee followed

The concept for the giveaway was started by Oprah Winfrey’s best friend, Gayle King.

This was revealed in a podcast titled ‘Making Oprah: The inside story of a TV revolution‘

King met an executive from Pontiac on a flight, and the company then offered 25 cars for the show as a giveaway.

But ever ambitious, Oprah and her team pushed for a Pontiac G6 to be given out to every single one of their audience members.

That’s 276 in total – a whole lot of cars.

As you may recall, it was total pandemonium when Oprah revealed that each audience member would be walking away with their own car.

Audience members could be seen hugging each other, crying, and screaming with joy.

But what came afterwards would leave a sour taste in many people’s mouths.

Since the cars were gifts, they were taxed as ordinary income. The gift tax is paid by the person giving the gift, and in 2004, the rate was 48 percent.

To their credit, the show’s producers paid for the sales tax and registration of each car.

That still left audience members with a gift tax that could be around $7,000.

Reflecting on the event, producer Lisa Erspamer recalled how the fallout turned ugly.

“Because we didn’t pay the gift tax, people complained to the press, and that was devastating,” she said.

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Celebrity generosity tends to come with less complications

The stunt evidently didn’t put Oprah off free car giveaways, as she was back at it again in 2010, giving away Volkswagen Beetles and words of advice.

But she isn’t the only household name to be generous with cars.

You may recall that Dwayne Johnson gave his dad a $60,000 truck as a show of appreciation.

And he didn’t stop there – his uncle and his stunt double also benefited from his abundant spending.

Here’s hoping they didn’t have to pay a gift tax, too.

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