The Talk (talk show)


The Talk is an American talk show that debuted on October 18, 2010, as part of CBS's daytime programming block. The show was developed by actress and host Sara Gilbert.
The show features Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood, Eve, Carrie Ann Inaba and Marie Osmond. They discuss the latest headlines, current events, and human-interest stories while engaging in open conversation. The original concept theme focused on motherhood, and over time evolved into a broader platform.
The Talk is broadcast before a live studio audience at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, California, each Monday through Friday at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and airs live on most CBS owned-and-operated stations and affiliates in the Eastern and Central United States at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The program is on a broadcast delay elsewhere from the Mountain Time Zone westward. The Friday shows are recorded on Thursday afternoons at 1:00 pm PT for broadcast the next day. Friday shows are taped before the same studio audience in attendance for the earlier live Thursday broadcast.

Format

The Talk has a format similar in style to ABC's The View. The opening segment of the broadcast is known as "Everybody Talks" and usually runs a combined 12 to 25 minutes over multiple segments, depending on the number of stories featured and the number of guests. It is followed by topical discussion segments, involves the five-female host panel discussing current news items, typically focusing on tabloid headlines, offbeat stories, and celebrity news. The program also actively incorporates social media to allow viewers to provide their opinions on the stories discussed through Twitter. In season five, the program began allowing viewers to use Instagram to record and upload videos using the aforementioned hashtags, with one or two videos being selected to air on the live broadcasts.
On most editions, the "Top Talker" serves as the final segment of the topical discussion, featuring a rotating set of contributors - most of whom are correspondents/hosts of entertainment-related newsmagazine programs or magazines or hosts of local or syndicated radio programs - providing detailed analysis of a single trending, usually celebrity-related, story. Following the "Everybody Talks" segment, all five hosts interview one or two featured celebrity guests; most of these interviews are conducted at the set's roundtable. Musical performances are also occasionally included.
The show also regularly has a cooking segment two to four times each week, with two of the panelists - rotating between any combination of Chen, Underwood, Gilbert, or Osbourne - assisting in the preparation of the featured recipes with the guest chef. Product giveaways are also done once per week, as part of a segment showcasing fashion/beauty products and electronics that are given away to studio audience members for attending the show, and are often tied into online flash sales where the viewing audience can purchase the products offered at a reduced price.
To conclude the show through season 9, each episode signed-off with one of the co-hosts, primarily the moderator, saying "Remember, it's always the right time to have The Talk!". With the start of season 10, the sign-off was changed to "Let's Talk Tomorrow!" or "Let's Talk Later".

Development

In December 2009, CBS announced the cancellation of As the World Turns after 54 years, and was looking for a program to replace the long-running soap opera in its time slot. Sara Gilbert approached CBS about producing a pilot that would feature six women talking about the day's headlines with opinions told through "the eyes of mothers."
On July 21, 2010, CBS announced that it had picked up the show, beating out several other contenders, including a cooking show featuring Emeril Lagasse; Say It Now, a talk show featuring Valerie Bertinelli and Rove McManus; and a revamped version of the classic game show Pyramid, hosted by Andy Richter.
In the four weeks prior to the show's debut, new episodes of The Price Is Right and Let's Make a Deal, as well as repeats of The Young and the Restless, aired in the timeslot vacated by As the World Turns.

Co-hosts

Timeline

Season 1

The original panel consisted of Sara Gilbert, known for her role on the TV series Roseanne; Holly Robinson Peete, known for her roles on the TV series 21 Jump Street and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper; Leah Remini, known for her role as Carrie Heffernan in the 1998–2007 CBS sitcom The King of Queens; Big Brother hostess Julie Chen; and former talk show hostess/X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne, the wife of rocker Ozzy Osbourne. Marissa Jaret Winokur was featured in an out-of-the studio position as the "mother on the street," dealing with issues like taking her toddler on an airplane, talking with kids about sex, talking to parents about the "terrible twos" and other parental issues.
On January 14, 2011, Marissa Jaret Winokur reported that she would not be returning to the show in 2011. In an exclusive statement to People, original executive producer Brad Bessey said of Winokur's departure, "We think the world of Marissa as a creative talent, on-air personality and super mom. This is a mutual decision based on time, not talent."
When America's Got Talent resumed filming on March 2, 2011, Osbourne's daughter Kelly Osbourne began filling in for her on a substitute basis, as the show's first substitute host.
On August 26, 2011, it was announced that original co-host Leah Remini had been released from the show. On September 2, 2011, it was confirmed that Holly Robinson Peete had also been released from the show. Sharon Osbourne eventually gave opinion on their dismissals in December 2011 on The Howard Stern Show, stating: "Some people don't really know who they are, and you have to know who you are when you're in something like this. You can't pretend to be something you're not. You have to know your brand. You can't be all things to everyone."

Seasons 2–5

On August 26, 2011, CBS announced that comedian Sheryl Underwood would join the panel as a co-host at the start of its second season; Underwood was officially added to the program on September 6, 2011, beginning with that season's premiere episode.
Molly Shannon served as the co-host during the month of September 2011. Actress and comedian Aisha Tyler's addition to the panel was announced on October 23, 2011.

Season 6

On October 12, 2016, the episode of The Talk aired special tributes to four CBS soap operas such as The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, and Guiding Light, and As the World Turns.

Season 7–8

On June 15, 2017, Aisha Tyler announced she would leave the series following the completion of the series' seventh season. She said she would return as a guest host and to promote her various projects. Her last show aired on August 4, 2017. The current hosts of The Talk auditioned ladies on air as "dates" to fill in Aisha's seat. At the start of the eighth season, some of the guest hosts included Carrie Ann Inaba, Garcelle Beauvais, Michelle Williams, Sasheer Zamata and Eve. Eve was announced as the fifth permanent co-host on November 14, 2017.

Season 9

In a promo for the ninth season, it was revealed that all five co-hosts would return to the panel. However, Chen did not return to the show for the ninth season premiere amid sexual misconduct allegations against her husband Leslie Moonves. Chen officially announced her departure from the talk show in a pre-taped message on Tuesday, September 18, 2018. On December 6, 2018, Variety announced that Inaba had been chosen to join the show as a permanent co-host, with a projected January 2019 debut. Inaba officially joined the show on January 2, 2019.
During the April 9, 2019 episode, Gilbert announced she would depart the talk show at the conclusion of its ninth season; she cited acting opportunities and her desire to produce other projects as the reason for her departure; her final episode aired on August 2, 2019.

Season 10

The tenth season premiered on September 9, 2019, with Marie Osmond replacing Gilbert as co-host. In addition to Osmond's addition, a brand-new, state-of-the-art set was unveiled. In March 2020, the show was scheduled to broadcast without an audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but CBS later decided to stop the show all together out of an abundance of caution. The show was quickly revamped as The Talk @Home and began broadcast using Zoom, featuring each host from their own homes.

Notable events

Season premieres

The first week of shows featured several celebrity guests, including model Christie Brinkley, singer/actress Jennifer Lopez, actress/director Chandra Wilson, actress/author Jamie Lee Curtis, and former South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford.
The third-season premiere featured all five co-hosts, as well as members of the studio audience, without their make-up and dressed in robes during the broadcast; all of the co-hosts were also shown beside pictures of themselves with make-up. The guests for that edition, who also participated in the stunt, were Jamie Lee Curtis; Michelle Stafford and Melody Thomas Scott of The Young and the Restless; and Katherine Kelly Lang of The Bold and the Beautiful.
The premiere weeks of the fourth and fifth seasons featured "The Talk Tells All", a daily feature on the season's first week of shows in which co-hosts Chen, Gilbert, Osbourne, Tyler and Underwood revealed never-before-disclosed personal secrets on-air.
Season six premiered on September 14, 2015 with a slightly new set design featuring three new large monitors with backdrops including palm trees and the Los Angeles skyline. Season seven premiered on September 12, 2016, with the same set. The hosts kicked off premiere week by unveiling answers to the viewers' biggest questions with a theme they called "The 7 Wonders of The Talk."

On-location editions

The show made two trips to New York City during its second season, broadcasting live for one week on each trip. The first trip placed some audience members inside and some outside the studio. Beginning with the second trip, the show began to tape its New York City-based episodes in a studio at the CBS Broadcast Center, similar in structure to its Los Angeles studio, with the audience members based within the soundstage. The Talk has done week-long broadcasts from New York City twice per season since then, with the Thursday and Friday episodes being recorded on the same day as the Tuesday and Wednesday live broadcasts. The program's first set of New York City episodes in the third season, featured a partnership with Toys for Tots, asking all guests and audience members to bring a new unwrapped toy to donate to the charity.
During the third season, The Talk broadcast a week of episodes from New Orleans, Louisiana – site of Super Bowl XLVII - from January 28, 2013 to February 1, 2013, to help promote CBS's coverage of the National Football League championship game.

''The Talk After Dark''

From January 12 to 16, 2015, CBS broadcast a special second "late night" edition of The Talk – unofficially titled The Talk After Dark - which filled the 12:37 a.m. Eastern timeslot normally occupied by The Late Late Show. Recorded each afternoon that week before the studio audience in attendance for the earlier live daytime broadcasts for broadcast each night, the episodes featured a separate slate of guests and featured topics from the daytime editions, and featured a special house band exclusive to the late-night editions led by rock musician/songwriter Linda Perry.

''The Talk: Keep Talking''

From March 15 to 16, 2018, The Talk aired two exclusive episodes on their Facebook page entitled Keep Talking as CBS broadcast the NCAA March Madness games on the aforementioned dates. This special edition featured all five co-hosts communicating with their Facebook fans asking them personal questions and advice for their own personal problems. Unlike a normal episode the topics are decided entirely by the fans. Both episodes are similar to The Real's online exclusive segments and both episodes are around four minutes.

''The Talk: Chat Room''

Carrie Ann Inaba originally announced on the March 12, 2020, episode that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Talk would broadcast without an audience. After CBS forced the production to shut down, Inaba began hosting a daily Instagram live from her own home during the stay-at-home order. CBS greenlit Inaba's show while including all five co-hosts under a new format using social media tools.

''The Talk: @Home''

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, CBS halted the in-studio production of The Talk. On March 30, 2020, the show began using Zoom, allowing the show's hosts to broadcast from their homes. The format of the show remains the same starting with discussions from trending current events, host discussions, and having guests join who are also using the same video platform. The @Home format arose from the hosts doing a daily Instagram broadcast each day at the same time the show was scheduled to air. The show will continue to use the @Home format for the foreseeable future.

Appearances in other media

On March 14, 2016, all of The Talk hosts made a cameo on Supergirl in the episode "Falling" when Cat Grant made a guest appearance on The Talk. On December 15, 2017, Julie Chen revealed that all of the current hosts of The Talk will be featured on an episode of Jane the Virgin as themselves which was directed by Gina Rodriguez. On January 10, 2018, The Talk revealed on their Instagram and Snapchat stories they filmed their episode of Jane the Virgin on the set of The Talk right after filming the show for the aforementioned date. On February 9, 2018, Rodriguez made a guest appearance on the show to announce the episode featuring the ladies of The Talk, called "Chapter Seventy-Four" would air that night.

Reception

Ratings

The debut episode of The Talk was number one in its timeslot in 20 of the 56 markets. As of October 2011, The Talk averaged 1.83 million viewers per episode, a 25% decrease from As the World Turnss ratings the previous year.
By June 2012, The Talk averaged 1.7/6 in households, 2.29 million viewers, 1.1/7 in women 25–54 and 0.8/5 in women 18–49. The women 25–54 rating was The Talks highest since the week ending February 17, while the women 18–49 rating was the best since the week ending May 4. Compared to the same week last year, The Talk was up +21% in households, +24% in viewers, +38% in women 25–54 and +33% in women 18–49.

Criticism

The Talk was criticized for a segment where some panelists made light of male genital mutilation. Osbourne said, "However, I do think it is quite fabulous" in response to a story where a wife had drugged her husband, cut off his penis, and put it in the garbage disposal due to his filing for divorce. An apology was made during a subsequent show.
The failure to disclose on-air why Remini and Robinson Peete were released, or even to mention them, prompted criticism of the show from some viewers, with some fans of the two stars protesting their dismissals.

Awards and nominations

International broadcasts