Station managers can breathe a collective sigh of relief now that Oprah Winfrey has renewed her contract with King World to host and produce “The Oprah Winfrey Show” through the 2010-2011 season. Ms. Winfrey had regularly been a subject of retirement rumors for years but will now work through her 25th year in syndication with the new deal.

In addition, the series has already been renewed on the key ABC O&O stations, including WABC-TV in New York, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and WLS-TV in Chicago.

After cutting back on the amount of fresh episodes of the series, the new deal stipulates that the strip will add ten new episodes per year to 140 beginning this season and running through the 2009-2010 season. In the final year of the contract, the series will again tape 130 episodes of the show.

“The thought of taking the show to its 25th anniversary is both exhilarating and challenging,” said Ms. Winfrey. “The years ahead will allow me to continue to grow along with my viewers and will give my production company the time and opportunity to use the show as a launching pad to create and develop additional projects and potential future shows.”