Talk Shows
Talk shows have been around for decades. Morning, day time, and late night, they come in all varieties. I've never really been a big fan of them. My buddy Pete tried getting me into Letterman back in late middle school but I never really took to them. Back then you had Letterman and Leno for late night talk shows on channels 2 and 4. That was it, and that was enough. Then they started with the late late night talk shows, Conan and Kilbourn, who aired after Letterman and Leno but still on the same 2 stations. I actually like Conan and Kilbourn better than Leno or Letterman. Bluntly put, I hate Leno, always have always will. Then something magical happened.
Channel 7 got in the late night talk show mix with the Jimmy Kimmel show. I love Jimmy. Since the first time I watched the Man Show, he became one of my favorite TV personalities. Sadly enough, despite my love for Kimmel, I never really watched his talk show after the initial opening week. Maybe its because I have little interest in the lives of celebs or that I despise the majority of people who comprise the musical landscape in the US. And as far as athletes go, most of them really shouldn't be allowed to talk on camera.
The talk show landscape is vastly different today. For whatever reason, the number of talk shows has exponentially increased while the quality of the people hosting these shows and exponentially decreased. I point no further than the following examples: Carson Daily, Jimmy Fallon, Wanda Sykes and my personal favorite after Wanda, George Lopez on TBS.
The real disturbing thing about this though, is that TBS, a non-network station, has begun to copy-cat the networks. TBS is a good station. They play Seinfeld re-runs, air sports and movies as well as a few other good shows. They don't need to sully themselves by copying network TV, which are above and beyond the worst channels on TV (save for MTV and a couple other cable channels)
So do me a favor America. Don't tune into talk shows. If the ratings are bad enough they might just go away. Then again Survivor is still on the air so who knows.
