A talkshow (American and Australian English) or chatshow (British) is a television programming or radio programming genre in which one person (or group of people) discusses various topics put forth by a talk show host.^[1]

Usually, guests consist of a group of people who are learned or who have great experience in relation to whatever issue is being discussed on the show for that episode. Other times, a single guest discusses their work or area of expertise with a host or co-hosts. A call-in show takes live phonecalls from callers listening at home, in their cars, etc. Sometimes, guests are already seated but are often introduced and enter from backstage. Gay Byrne, Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson,^[2] Dick Cavett, Ed Sullivan, Oprah Winfrey, Rush Limbaugh, and Mosunmola Abudu have hosted notable talk shows; in many cases, the shows have made their hosts famous.

Subgenres [edit]

Television talk shows often feature celebrity guests who talk about their work and personal lives as well as the their latest films, TV shows, music recordings or other projects they'd like to promote to the public. The hosts are often comedians who open the shows with comedy monologues.

Talk-radio host Howard Stern also hosted a talk show that was syndicated nationally in the USA, then moved to satellite radio's Sirius. The tabloid talk show genre, pioneered by Phil Donahue^[3] but popularized by Oprah Winfrey^[4] was extremely popular during the last two decades of the 20th century.^[5]

Politics are hardly the only subject of American talk shows, however. Other radio talk show subjects include Car Talk hosted by NPR and Coast to Coast AM hosted by Art Bell and George Noory which discusses topics of the paranormal, conspiracy theories, fringe science and the just plain weird. Sports talk shows are also very popular ranging from high-budget shows like The Best Damn Sports Show Period to Max Kellerman's original public-access television cable TV show Max on Boxing.

History [edit]

Talk shows had been broadcasted on television since the earliest days of the medium. Joe Franklin, an American radio and television personality, hosted the first television talk show. The show began in 1951 on WJZ-TV (later WABC-TV) and moved to WOR-TV (later WWOR-TV) from 1962 to 1993.^[6]

Ireland's The Late Late Show is the world's longest-running talk show;^[7][8] although The Tonight Show is equally as old, it has changed formats and titles since its beginnings in 1950.

Steve Allen was the first host of The Tonight Show, which began as a local New York show, being picked up by the NBC network in 1954. It in turn had evolved from his late-night radio talk show in Los Angeles. Allen pioneered the format of late night network TV talk shows, originating such talk show staples as an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, and comedy bits in which cameras were taken outside the studio, as well as music, although the series' popularity was cemented by second host Jack Paar, who took over after Allen had left and the show had ceased to exist.

Dick Cavett and Jack Paar

TV news pioneer Edward R. Murrow^[9] hosted a talk show entitled Small World in the late 1950s and since then, political TV talk shows have predominantly aired on Sunday mornings.

Syndicated daily talk shows began to gain more popularity during the mid-1970s and reached their height of popularity with the rise of the tabloid talk show. Morning talk shows gradually replaced earlier forms of programming - there were a plethora of morning game shows during the 1960s and early to mid-1970s, and some stations formerly showed a morning movie in the time slot that many talk shows now occupy.

Current late night talk shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letterman have aired for years, featuring celebrity guests and comedy sketches. Syndicated daily talk shows range from tabloid talk shows, such as The Jerry Springer Show to celebrity interview shows like Live! with Kelly and Michael, The Better (TV series) Show,The Wendy Williams Show, and Ellen to industry leader The Oprah Winfrey Show which popularized the former genre and has been evolving towards the latter. On November 10, 2010, Oprah Winfrey invited several of the most prominent American talk show hosts - Phil Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael, Geraldo Rivera, Ricki Lake and Montel Williams - to join her as guests on her show. The 1990s in particular saw a spike in the number of "tabloid" talk shows, most of which were short-lived and are now replaced by a more universally appealing "interview" or "lifestyle TV" format ^[10]

Talk shows have more recently started to appear on Internet Radio. Also, several internet blogs are in talk show format including the Baugh Experience.

The current world record for the longest talk show is held by Rabi Lamichhane from Nepal by staying in air for 62 hours from April 11 to April 13 2013 breaking the previous record set by two Ukrenians by airing the show for 52 hours in 2011.^[11]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22140317

Talk shows in other countries [edit]

In Japan, panel shows - called "tooku bangumi" (トーク番組）in Japanese - are very commonplace, accounting for about 30% of daytime and prime-time programming on the four main television stations. Due to language and cultural differences, Japanese TV stations could not freely use syndicated programs (mostly from Europe and North America) and therefore turned to panel shows, which could be produced cheaply and easily, to fill time during daytime programming.

Japanese panel shows are distinct in generally not employing regular panelists but instead having a panel made up of different freelance comedians and celebrities each program, although the program is generally hosted by the same compere. Talk shows evolved in tandem with the Japanese variety show and it is very common for talk shows to borrow variety elements, typically by having celebrity guests attempt some kind of amusingly incongruous activity. Often, one of the guests will be a gaijin tarento (foreign talent) in order to provide comedy or to comment on matters related to Western culture. However, the comedic elements are usually written for the guests and hosts.

Taiwan is also known for their talk shows, like Japan, where they carry variety show elements and feature a handful of celebrities for each show. Many Taiwanese talk shows rely on comedic bantering, musical and talent performances, wildly animated on-screen texts and visuals (remniscent of anime), but most of these elements are scripted by writers.

Talk show subgenres [edit]

• Tabloid talk show (a.k.a. Trash TV)
• Late-night talk show

See also [edit]

• Talk radio
• Breakfast television

References [edit]

Further reading [edit]

• Niven, David; Lichter, S. R.; Amundson, Daniel (July 2003). "The Political Content of Late Night Comedy". The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 8 (3): 118–133. doi:10.1177/1081180X03008003007. 
• Priming Effects of Late-Night Comedy
• Late-Night Comedy and the Salience of the Candidates' Caricatured Traits in the 2000 Election
• About Talk Shows
• Morning Talk Shows
• Daytime Talk Shows
• Late Night Talk Shows