The Talk (TV series)

Format

Similar in format to The View, the opening segment of the broadcast – known as "Everybody Talks" and usually running a combined 12 to 25 minutes over multiple segments, depending on the number of stories featured and the number of guests following the 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 (using the hashtag #EverybodyTalks, or alternately the abbreviated #EVBT), however 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. Twitter comments from viewers are shown on the Monday through Thursday live broadcasts in the form of a ticker at the bottom of the screen; comments from Twitter and Instagram are not featured on-air during the pre-recorded Friday broadcasts.

On most editions, the "Top Talker" serves as the final segment of the topical discussion, featuring a rotating set of contributors – most of which 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, however the program does occasionally feature group interviews with multiple cast members from a promoted film or television project that are not conducted at the roundtable, and are instead conducted with the hosts and guests seated face to face on-set. Musical performances are also occasionally featured.

The show also regularly features a cooking segment two to four times each week, with two of the panelists – rotating between any combination of Chen, Underwood, Tyler or Osbourne – assisting in the preparation of the featured recipes with the guest chef (the remaining hosts not actively participating in the preparation of the item are seated on the right end of the kitchen island, typically trying the dishes prepared during or before the segment). 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, with the products also being made available for purchase through the show's website at a discounted offer.

Each episode is concluded by one of the co-hosts, primarily the moderator, with the sign-off "Remember, it's always the right time to have The Talk!" (the program's title is usually said in unision with the studio audience).

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 (by then, given the title The Talk), 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 (a show that replaced Guiding Light) as well as repeats of The Young and the Restless aired in the time slot vacated by As the World Turns.

Season 1

The original panel consisted of Sara Gilbert; Holly Robinson Peete, best 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." The failure to disclose on-air as to why Remini and Robinson Peete were released or even mention them brought about criticism of the show from some viewers, with some fans of the two stars protesting their dismissals.

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 guest co-host during the month of September 2011. Actress and comedian Aisha Tyler's addition to the panel was announced on October 23, 2011.

Kelly Osbourne, Marie Osmond (typically credited in episodes in which she guest hosts on a first-name-only basis), Melissa Rivers, and Carnie Wilson are the current notable substitute hosts, filling in for members on the panel.

Season 6-7

Season six premiered on September 14, 2015 with a slightly new set design featuring 3 new large monitors with backdrops including palm trees and the Los Angeles skyline.

On March 14, 2016; all of The Talk hosts made a cameo on Supergirl in the episode "Falling" when Cat Grant (played by Calista Flockhart) made a guest appearance on The Talk.

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."

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 (aired on September 10, 2012) 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 (September 9 to 13, 2013 and September 8 to 12, 2014) 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.

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 (usually during the February and May sweeps periods and in December), 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 (from December 10 to 14, 2012), 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 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 (which itself utilized guest hosts on most other weeks in the four-month period between Craig Ferguson's departure from The Late Late Show in December 2014 and the start of James Corden's tenure as host of that program in March 2015). 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 (wife of series creator and co-host Sara Gilbert).

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 Turns's 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 Talk's 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 (from 1.4/4), +24% in viewers (from. 1.85m), +38% in women 25–54 (from 0.8/5) and +33% in women 18–49 (from 0.6/4).

Criticism

The Talk was criticized for a segment where some panelists made light of male genital mutilation. Osborne 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 filling for divorce. An apology was made during a subsequent show.

International broadcasts