Commentary

Check The Guest List For Talk Shows And Late-Night Entertainment

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 11, 2014

Too many talk shows and not enough good guests? It’s seems to be a growing supply and demand TV content quandary. More so with cable TV shows.

This is one of the main reasons you may never see straight-ahead prime-time interview/talk show on CNN in its key 9 p.m. time slot ever again. It was something the network used as its mothership for years, occupied first by Larry King and more recently by Piers Morgan.

Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, in remarks during Thursday’s upfront presentation, noted: "We believe that genre is no longer viable. There are just too many outlets with not enough big gets [emphasis added] for a pure talk show to thrive any longer.”

But it’s not just news-oriented talk. Some of this reflects on late-night entertainment driven talk shows as well -- NBC’s “Tonight,” CBS’ “Late Show” and ABC’s “Kimmel,” especially of late. Mind you, it isn’t for lack of entertainment talent, but more for what is increasing done around those guest interviews.

Take the new “Tonight” show host Jimmy Fallon. A lot has been made of his early success, with an emphasis that his many variety-show elements -- singing and comedy skits with his guests -- are key reasons for his strong viewer/rating performance.

Much could be said that of other/younger talk show talent as well -- including the incoming Stephen Colbert set to replace David Letterman as host of “Late Show.” These shows -- especially those on Comedy Central “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” -- seem to rely less on entertaining interviews with guests and more with variety pieces and/or host monologue/comedy bits.

For straight-ahead talk shows -- especially those early morning TV network shows “Good Morning America,” “Today” or “CBS Morning Show” -- it’s still about getting big-time newsworthy guests.

Cable TV talk shows have it rougher for sure, making Zucker’s point.

For some time, Turner Broadcasting's late-night animated programming block Adult Swim has racked up a good story in its effort to pursue young 18-34 viewers.

Colbert can work in any environment. At 49, Colbert will be the oldest of the three network late-night talk show hosts -- with Kimmel, 46, and Fallon, 36. But he doesn’t play old -- with the median age of its Comedy Central show being 42.

If that is not enough, consider: Colbert has 6.2 million Twitter followers; CBS’s “Late Show”? That comes at at 286,000.

All that might point to where a newly hosted CBS “Late Show” is headed -- especially for Colbert. He easily entertains without much help, where he has played, for the most part, in “character.” .

Though he has said the whole character thing will disappear with the “Late Show,” we are sure some part of Colbert on-air persona will remain. Who needs big-time guests?

celebrity, tv

2 comments about "Check The Guest List For Talk Shows And Late-Night Entertainment ".

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Walter Graff from Bluesky Media, April 11, 2014 at 11:45 a.m.
It doesn't matter who they put in these chairs. Like morning TV there are a given number of people watching although with each chair change, the numbers dwindle slightly more.
Your also ignoring one reality of today's talk shows, guests come on for a press junket. In the days of Carson, etc. guests were invited on and came to talk, not sell a product. Big difference.
Today Elton John will visit NY and in three days be on seven shows. After a while there is nothing more to say and you've seen him on every other show. Hence why they are now taking guests "out of character" to entertain with silly water pistol fights and break dancing but that will wear off too and all you'll be left with is the guest doing to press junket tour for a movie or TV show again until the next gimmick is introduced.
Won't matter, like I said there is always the same audience looking for somethign to watch at that time so you could show paint dry and people will watch.
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Chuck Lantz from 2007ac.com, 2017ac.com network, April 11, 2014 at 5:57 p.m.

We should be clear that "the character thing" won't disappear when Colbert takes over for Letterman. It will simply change to a new, dialed-back character, ... the one that all talk show hosts develop for their on-air persona to some extent. Which could be a problem for Colbert, since we've never seen that persona. It's even more of a problem since he's replacing Letterman, whose on-air character is probably the closest to what he's like in real life than any of his competition.