"The 2011-12 season is when there should've been a food fight."
Maybe not. You have to remember, it can take a long time, sometimes two to three years or more, to take a talk show from initial pitch to greenlight for a pilot to signing a station affiliation lineup to series production to premiere. Ricki Lake, who had a recent and successful track record, took the better part of four years to get re-launched after she first started telling potential producers and syndicators she wanted to make a comeback. Katie Coouric also started sounding out possible producers behind the scenes while she was still anchoring the CBS Evening News (but after she knew she was going to leave the anchor desk). A lot if these shows took time to launch, time that began even before it was certain Oprah was going to pack it in on broadcast TV .
Why have they all jumped in now? Could be coincidence, actually. They all hit the starting line at once, but these shows have been anything from one to four years in the making. Everyone is in the fray, not necessarily because they expected to be the next Oprah (a few were in the planning stages while Oprah was still in production), but they know even a semi-successful show that can stay on the air for several seasons can make a LOT of money over and above the cost of producing it and paying the host. Haven't seen most of the newbies so I don't have an opinion on which of them will join Rachael Ray, Ellen Degeneres, Jerry Springer and Kelly Ripa as long term survivors. One or two probably will, one or two more will be around for a second season but fall to the wayside by the time year three comes around,, and the rest won't get beyond season one.
There's just so much room for these shows on the schedule. But the ones that make it beyond year one make beaucoup bucks, and the long term survivors make money a prime-time hit's producers and stars would envy.