The number of daytime television talk shows increased rapidly during the 1990s. In the late 1980s, there were only three national daytime talk show personalities (Phil Donahue, Oprah Winfrey, and Sally Jessy Raphael). By 1995, there were almost twenty daytime syndicated talk shows watched by an estimated ten million viewers each day.

Controversies Over Talk Shows

As talk shows proliferated, so did criticism by politicians such as U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who refer to these programs as "trash TV." Part of the concern arises from reports that children and adolescents often watch these programs. In a national survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center in 1996, children were more likely than their parents to say they watched shows such as Ricki Lake, Jenny Jones, Montel Williams, or Geraldo. According...