Never underestimate the words free and chicken in the same phrase.

KFC learned a painful lesson this past week after talk-show titan Oprah Winfrey took to the airwaves May 5 with an offer of a free grilled chicken two-piece meal - a new, healthier addition to the menu at the fast food chain known for its southern fried chicken.

Hungry consumers who are also down on the their luck due to the current economic crisis could visit Oprah.com where for the next 24 hours they were supposed to be able to download a coupon for the meal that included two pieces of the company's new grilled chicken menu item, two side orders and a biscuit.

In the next few days, customers flooded KFC restaurants, many of which had long lines and even longer wait times.

NEWD's very own Kereth Powell visited two separate locations in New York City to take advantage of the coupon deal.

"I've never seen so many people in my life standing in line for free chicken," said Kereth Powell. "There were droves of people, young and old, trying to get in line for a piece of the action."

Eaton appeared on Winfrey's show Friday via Skype to perform damage control on the KFC brand.

Winfrey acknowledged some of the issues surrounding the campaign, and called the download of 10.5 million coupons and giveaway of $42 million worth of free food from KFC "quite a hookup."

In a press release on May 7, KFC said that after the "unprecedented and overwhelming response" restaurants would no longer honor the coupon, but would provide a rain-check program for customers.

Eaton said 4 million meals had been redeemed by using the coupons, with 6.5 million meals from rainchecks still needing to be distributed.

*Source: Oprah coupon craze leaves KFC customers hungry for more -- www.cnn.com