Susan Powter’s Interview Decline and Consequences

Throughout her meteoric rise to stardom as a ’90s fitness icon, Stop the Insanity! infomercial star Susan Powter stood on tenets of helping Americans become lean, strong, and healthy — but, as she exclusively reveals to Entertainment Weekly, she certainly wasn’t going to let anyone strong-arm her into doing an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show at the height of Powter’s fame.

Reflecting on Past Success and Current Life

In an interview spanning topics from her past career to her current life working as an Uber Eats delivery person in Las Vegas, Powter, now 67, reflects on her own short-lived talk show, The Susan Powter Show, which followed the establishment of her multi-million-dollar wellness empire that included workout videos, books, and a media schedule she feels didn’t align with her personal objectives.

“Back then it was bad news. I mean, Oprah, her show was the beginning of the trashiest s— on Earth,” Powter, who became one of the era’s biggest pop cultural phenomenons in the fitness space after publicizing her weight-loss journey, tells EW over a bowl of rice, vegetables, and tofu at a small restaurant in the outskirts of the entertainment capital she calls home.

Declining Oprah Winfrey Show Invitation

When asked if Winfrey’s team ever asked her to be a guest on the iconic talk show, which ran from 1986-2011, she confirms that “they did,” but that she ultimately declined.

“It was back in the day, they were doing a panel with overweight people, and they were doing a really trashy segment,” Powter says, adding that one of Winfrey’s producers “was just shocked that I didn’t want to do the segment.”

Later, Powter stresses that she didn’t have any contact with Winfrey during the exchange with show staff, but that the producer had harsh words for her upon learning of Powter’s decision. “[She said], ‘You do know that you may never work in this town again.’ She said it like that, and I literally laughed,” Powter says. “I said, ‘I seriously doubt it, but thank you very much.’ I was very polite, but I got that line. It was very ’90s!”

Struggles and Loss of Fortune

Powter goes on to admit feeling over-produced by the team that surrounded her in the early ’90s, after Stop the Insanity! landed her everywhere from being the subject of a Kirstie Alley-starring parody on Saturday Night Live to appearing as an interview guest on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.

Still, Powter — who says she lost her fortune due to a mix of shady employees pilfering money, legal fees, and mismanaged financial affairs — divulges that while she enjoyed spreading her message to countless Americans who listened in droves, she felt corporate media greed pulling her further away from herself and into a mold she didn’t want to fit.

Future Projects and Documentary Role

Amid other projects Powter has brewing (including a podcast and a planned nationwide tour in an RV she’s yet to purchase, on top of a recently published memoir, And Then Em Died…), she’ll also star in an upcoming feature-length documentary directed by filmmaker Zeberiah Newman and produced by Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

“It was an indictment of how we discard human beings as they get older in this country. It’s an exploration of the incredible cruelty that we inflict on older people and the lack of resources, and the lack of dignity offered to these human beings who’ve lived before us and have been in service to us and have given us the lives we all are now living,” Curtis previously told EW of the film, which does not yet have a release date. “For me, as much as this is a fun, nostalgic look back to a time that was mindless…. it’s an indictment, exploration, and a challenge for all of us to look at how complicit we are as individuals in that story, and that’s what the movie is about.”

Conclusion

Check back with EW for more from our interview with Powter.

FAQs

Q: Did Susan Powter ever appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show?

A: No, Susan Powter declined an invitation to be a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show during the height of her fame.

Q: What led to Susan Powter’s loss of fortune?

A: Susan Powter attributes the loss of her fortune to a combination of shady employees stealing money, legal fees, and financial mismanagement.

Credit: ew.com