Talk shows are a genre of nonfiction television or radio programs that usually feature a host interviewing guests about various topics. There are several standard formats for talk shows, including: morning news/light talk shows like Today and Good Morning America; political debate shows like Meet the Press; pundit shows hosted by a single commentator; daytime talk shows focusing on celebrities or personal stories; late night talk shows that also feature comedy and music; and phone-in radio talk shows. Talk shows are typically ephemeral and not rerun, featuring a new guest or guests each episode to discuss topics with the host.

1. Talk Show
Watch
 Main
 + Create New
The Talk Show ("Chat Show" in the UK) genre encompasses a number of different
formats, but all talk shows share certain characteristics:
 Talk shows are (almost) exclusively nonfiction. (Space Ghost Coast to Coast
and Fernwood Tonight are thus spoofs of the entire genre.)
 Talk shows feature a guest or guests who are invited on a per-episode basis to
discuss topics with permanent hosts.
 All talk shows are ephemeral in that they are created, shown, and then discarded
or shelved. Except in rare circumstances, reruns are not shown.
Talk Show Formats
Most talk shows follow one of a number of standard formats:
1. Morning News Talk Show: Light news, commentary, and fluff pieces.
Examples: The Today Show, Good Morning America.
2. News Talk Show: Pundits arguing. Meet the Press is the longest-running
example, as well as the longest running talk show, and the longest running TV
show period. (Guiding Light has 15+ more years than Meet the Press on radio,
but one less on TV.)
3. Pundit Show: A News Talk Show with only one host. Generally self-
aggrandizing, highly politicized and full of vitriol. Often supported with a
companion series on AM radio (if the radio show isn't the main draw in the first
place) and a blog. The radio ones usually Phone-In Shows, as well. Examples:
The O'Reilly Factor, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Hardball (with Chris
Matthews), Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Big Idea with Donny Deutsche,
The Colbert Report (parody). A British version is The Jeremy Vine Show, a
long-running lunchtime debate-and-music show on BBC Radio Two. Vine
inherited a slot formerly presented by veteran host Sir Jimmy Young. topical
political controversies are debtated and held open to the public for comment, but
unlike US radio equivalents, the show is either hampered (or improved) by a
strict legal requirement for political impartiality.
4. Daytime Talk Show: These shows typically feature celebrities and/or ordinary
people who showcase scandal or dysfunctionality. Examples: Jerry Springer
(scandal), Live! With Kelly & Michaelnote (celebrities), The Oprah Winfrey Show
(either or both). Pioneered by Phil Donahue. Dr. Phil fits here, with the twist
that he attempts to use psychology to help the dysfunctional people. Loose
Women is a British daytime variety presented by a panel of rather opinionated
professional women drawn from all areas of celebrity: journalists (Janet Street-
Porter), singers (Jayne McDonald, Colleen Nolan), actresses (Denise Welch) etc.
5. Late Night Talk Show: Current events, comedy, and celebrity guests, such as
The Tonight Show, Late Night, The Late Show, The Late Late Show, etc. Often a

2. limited form of the Variety Show, typically featuring a musical act — which is
usually used to cut to commercial, and rarely shown in its entirety. In the 70s,
such shows as Dinah Shore and The Mike Douglas Show aired afternoons, a
trend that saw a slight resurgence in the mid 90s.
6. Phone-In Talk Show: Most common in radio, this type of show has the host(s)
engaging in conversation with listeners who call in by telephone. A lot of these
double as/are linked to Pundit Shows: besides Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, and
Beck, all have phone-in radio shows, as did Rachel Maddow before she hopped
to TV. Other than those, NPR puts forward a number of phone-in shows that
double as News Talk (Talk of the Nation and The Diane Rehm Show being the
ones syndicated nationwide); they also do Car Talk. Commercial radio has a
plethora of these, as well; the one that sticks in a lot of people's memories,
however, is Coast To Coast AM, a talk show about the paranormal that generally
airs in the wee hours of the morning.
7. Spoof Talk Show: Does what it says on the tin. Examples: Space Ghost Coast
to Coast, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Man To Man With
Dean Learner, Fernwood Tonight.
8. Sports Talk Show: Very similar to the News Talk Show, except that it's all
about sports. One famous example is Sports Desk.
Notable Talk Show Hosts
 Steve Allen
 Bret Baier
 Glenn Beck
 Joy Behar
 William Bennett
 Wolf Blitzer
 Neal Boortz
 William F Buckley
 Herman Cain
 Tucker Carlson
 Johnny Carson
 Dick Cavett
 Neil Cavuto
 Stephen Colbert
 Anderson Cooper
 Monica Crowley
 Carson Daly
 Ellen DeGeneres
 Lou Dobbs
 Phil Donahue
 Mike Douglas
 Morton Downey Jr
 Jimmy Fallon
 Craig Ferguson
 Al Franken (Now a U.S. Senator)
 David Frost, who we get another look at in Frost/Nixon.

3.  Wally George
 John Gibson
 Nancy Grace
 Kathy Griffin
 Merv Griffin
 Greg Gutfeld
 Arsenio Hall
 Chelsea Handler
 Brit Hume
 Sean Hannity
 Thom Hartmann
 Hugh Hewitt
 Laura Ingraham
 Alex Jones
 Jenny Jones, infamous for the time one of her guests murdered another after
appearing on her program.
 Jimmy Kimmel
 Larry King
 Ricki Lake
 Cooper Lawrence
 Jay Leno
 David Letterman
 Mark Levin
 Rush Limbaugh
 Rachel Maddow
 Bill Maher
 Mike Malloy
 Chris Matthews
 Dr Phil Mc Graw
 Rove Mc Manus (recently finished)
 Michael Medved
 Stephanie Miller
 Graham Norton
 Conan O'Brien
 Rosie O Donnell, whose show re-vitalized the daytime talk/variety format in the
mid 90s.
 Keith Olbermann
 Opie & Anthony
 Bill O'Reilly
 Keith Parkinson
 Michael Parkinson, long time host of Parkinson and - to rightpondians, at least -
the god of this format.
 Jack Parr, who famously walked off the set of The Tonight Show in 1960, in the
middle of a broadcast.
 Regis Philbin
 Maury Povich
 Dennis Prager
 Sally Jesse Raphael, whose glasses are every bit as famous (if not more so) as
she herself.
 Randi Rhodes

4.  Kelly Ripa
 Jonathan Ross
 Michael Savage
 Joe Scarborough
 Dr Laura Schlessinger
 Dinah Shore
 Ed Schultz
 Tom Snyder
 Jerry Springer
 James Stannage
 Howard Stern
 Jon Stewart
 Michael Strahan
 Greta Van Susteren
 Oprah Winfrey