ABSTRACT
The daytime talk show has been a staple on television for more than more than two decades, but its modest beginnings (with Merv Griffin and Phil Donahue) were overshadowed in the 1990s. It has produced one of the wealthiest women, if not the wealthiest, in the nation in Oprah Winfrey. It has produced one of the most controversial television personalities, if not the most controversial, in Jerry Springer. It has competed successfully with daytime soap operas, causing at least two of them to be canceled. Its shift from mild topics and celebrity interviews to extrasensational and increasingly bizarre topics and noncelebrity guests led to the demise of the shows of both of the original hosts, Merv Griffin and Phil Donahue. A score of would-be hosts and hostesses have begun talk shows and failed. Annually, the talk show settles in with about 20 options for viewers, and a dozen tend to survive. The daytime talk show has become an increasingly soft and convenient target for critics who condemn its topics, its guests, and its ambush tactics. Yet, there is little research available to tell us much about it—much less research than for any other genre of television. What is its content? Who are its guests? Who is in the audience? What are its effects? The standard set of questions remains largely without answers.
