The Aesthetics of the Television Talk Show

Abstract

On stage there is a mother and her 17-year-old daughter. Today's problem is mothers who can't stand their children's partners. Mother and daughter tell the studio host about the conflict, and the studio host and the studio audience ask questions and make comments. Finally, the apple of discord-the boyfriend-is let into the studio. There now follows an extremely violent verbal clash between the mother and the boyfriend. They scream and shout at each other, and the studio audience applauds, jeers, and shouts comments. The emotional climax is reached when the tearful daughter declares her love to both mother and boyfriend, and calls upon them to make a reconciliation. The studio host rounds off, and, in a close up shot, she praises the maturity of the daughter to the applause of the studio audience. A commercial break follows. We are witnessing the American talk show, "Ricki Lake" 1 and the sequence with the mother, daughter, and boyfriend is one of the day's three stories. "Ricki Lake" is a talk show which is specially organised with the aim of capturing a segment of young, female viewers who, in marketing terms, are the most interesting in the American commercially based TV system. The series is a success in the USA, and it has made Ricki Lake one of the most highly paid talk show hosts in American television. The series is also broadcast on a number of TV stations across Europe. In Denmark, at the moment, we can see the series on TV3 and 3+. As a TV genre, however, the talk show is neither exclusive to the nineties nor to commercial television. In the USA the genre is as old as the medium of television itself, and today, talk shows comprise no small percentage of available programmes on commercial as well as non-commercial TV stations. Talk shows are cheap to produce and popular among viewers, and the ability of this genre to attract viewers is no new phenomenon either. It is, of course, no new phenomenon in Danish public service television either. For example; at the end of the seventies the talk show "Kanal 22" (DR 1979-82) was able to attract 36% of the population. This type of programme was developed into the series "Lørdagskanalen"-Saturday Channel-(DR 1982-86) which had a viewer quota of 68% of the population. The programme type survived after the ending of the television monopoly in Denmark, in "Eleva2ren" (TV 2 1988-96). In spite of viewers having a wider choice of channels, "Eleva2ren" was able to reach average ratings of 27% of the population. In short, we are apparently dealing with a TV genre which has qualities attractive to viewers. I will offer an explanation of what these qualities are with an angle of approach in audience-oriented critism 2. The reason why the talk show is a popular form of TV, and