• Entertainment Weekly, Thursday, May 28, 2009 10:02 AM

CNBC is doing a special called "The Oprah Effect" today about how companies get their wares onto the Queen of Consumer Culture's show. A mention on Oprah Winfrey's show can make a product sell like mad.

The documentary tells about folks who tried for seven years to get on the show and who were rescued from the brink of bankruptcy by an Oprah mention. In another example, some consumers have ended up so desperate to buy a $56 plain white T-shirt that the second that Oprah crowned it "the best-fitting cotton garment of all time," the Web site that carried the shirt was sold out.

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