Leary dedicated himself to watching the popular programme because he wanted to gather material to savage Oprah in his controversial book Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid.

But he soon got addicted to the show - and now wants to make a version for men, starring himself and fellow comedian Jon Stewart.

Leary tells USA Today newspaper, "The Oprah thing completely turned around on me. As soon as I started doing the research, I got sucked into the vortex of Oprah. I started watching episodes and reading the magazine (Oprah's magazine O). There's no male Oprah."

Asked about filming a men's version of the show, he adds: "Guys would listen. It could be me and Jon Stewart. You do the joke news, you do the scores because Stewart's a complete sports junkie."