Monica Pearson

Somehow we knew WSB-TV news anchor Monica Pearson would have some delicious dish for us from last week’s trip to Chicago where she interviewed a certain talk show queen for her latest “Monica’s Close-ups” airing Tuesday at 8 p.m. on WSB-TV.

And sure enough, the job Oprah Winfrey didn’t get was still on her mind when the two women met up again. You see, back in 1975 Winfrey and Pearson were both up for the ground-breaking anchor job at WSB-TV. Pearson got it and Winfrey didn’t, a statistic the multi-millionaire media queen hasn’t forgotten.

“It’s a little dance we do!” a laughing Pearson told us. “I mean, she’s got all that money, she’s Oprah Winfrey, but she still reminds me.”

On Tuesday’s special, Pearson shows viewers a story on her from the February 1976 issue of Glamour magazine, an article that had Winfrey seeing green at the time.

“She told me she never forgot that,” says Pearson. “It’s a picture of me with my cocker spaniel and I’m wearing a green jumpsuit!”

Pearson also pulled excerpts from an interview she did with Winfrey 24 years ago when Oprah’s Chicago talk show first went national. In 1985, Winfrey told the WSB anchor her goal for the new show was “to empower people.”

When reminded of  that in the new special, Winfrey exclaims: “I did it, I did it!”

Of course, back in 1985 when she was first dating businessman Stedman Graham, Winfrey told Pearson that marriage was probably not in the cards because she was afraid of commitment.

Cracks Pearson: “I told her, ‘You’re with the same man 24 years later. It doesn’t sound like you’re scared of commitment to me!’ ”

One question posed by Pearson caught Winfrey completely off guard, however: “What has being Oprah Winfrey cost you?”

Previews Pearson: “It stopped her in her tracks. I can’t wait for folks to see what she says.”

Ironically, despite their WSB-TV connection, Pearson says the two women have never discussed their trail-blazing careers, becoming successful African-American female media icons in a white male dominated industry 35 years ago.

“People think we’re friends but we’re acquaintances,” Pearson explains. “Whenever we get together it’s for business purposes. But I hope one day that we get to have that kick off your shoes, girl talk, though. We’d have an awful lot to talk about!”