Sunday morning talk shows

The Sunday morning talk shows are influential television talk/public affairs programs broadcast on Sunday mornings. Often featuring national leaders in politics and public life as guests, this type of program originated in the United States, and has since been used in Australia and the United Kingdom.

United States

In the United States the five major programs, in order of their debuts, are:

:"NOTE 1: Both Brokaw and Schieffer are expected to retire November 2008. Brokaw is the interim replacement for Tim Russert, who died in June 2008.
NOTE 2: Meet the Press traces its history to a radio program that debuted in 1945; the program debuted on television in 1947.
NOTE 3: This Week traces its history to Issues and Answers, which debuted in 1960."

While these are the "Big Five" that are universally included in the definition, there are some other shows that are occasionally included in this category. Examples include NBC's syndicated "The Chris Matthews Show" [ [http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/tv_nbc_after_russert/2008/06/16/105026.html Chris Matthews Tops Russert Replacement List] . Newsmax.com. "Hardball" host Chris Matthews is the best-known internal candidate. He already has a Sunday talk show syndicated by NBC Universal that's very competitive with the networks, despite taping on Friday."] , Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital with Al Hunt",Reilly, Daniel W. Sunday morning tip sheet. The Politico.] , the PBS roundtables "The McLaughlin Group"McLaughlin takes heat for 'Oreo' comment. CNN. 14 July 2008. "Longtime Washington talk-show host John McLaughlin is facing fire Monday for referring to Barack Obama as an "Oreo" during a segment on his Sunday political program, The McLaughlin Group."] and "Inside Washington", [Sunday Show Preview. Mediabistro.com "FishbowlDC." FishbowlDC includes all the ones listed in Reilly's definition, plus CN8's "Roll Call TV with Robert Traynham", POTUS08's "Post Politics Program", and three more CNN programs ("Reliable Sources", "Fareed Zakaria GPS", and "Beyond the Politics with William Bennett".).] C-SPAN's "Newsmakers", Fox News Channel's "Journal Editorial Report",Beall, Joshua (a.k.a. "Phssptok"). Weekend Talk Show Preview. Free Republic. Beall also lists two other Fox News programs, "Fox News Watch" and "The Beltway Boys" in this definition as "Saturday shows."] and (until Tim Russert's 2008 death) MSNBC's "Tim Russert Show", among several others. Univision's "Al Punto" is a talk show of this variety that is broadcast in the Spanish language.

The talk shows often feature national leaders in politics and public life, including U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, state governors, candidates for President and Vice President, Cabinet secretaries, White House officials, and directors of federal agencies. U.S. military leaders, ambassadors, and religious leaders also appear, as well as promient journalists and commentators. Members of prominent think tanks such as Brookings, AEI, Cato, Hoover, and Heritage often are invited to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows.

The shows are generally aired live or recorded in Washington, D.C., providing easy access to many political leaders. Many individuals manage to appear via satellite or in studio for two or more of the programs. In the twelve years that there have been five talk shows, four times has an individual appeared on all five programs in one week. In 1998, William H. Ginsburg, attorney for Monica Lewinsky's family during the Lewinsky scandal, performed what would be named in his honor as the "Full Ginsburg." Then-Vice Presidential candidate Dick Cheney repeated it in 2000, as did then Senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards in 2004, and in 2007, presidential candidate and Senator Hillary Clinton equaled the feat. More common is an interviewee appearing on different shows in consecutive weeks (for instance, a Presidential candidate may appear on "Meet the Press" one week, "This Week" the next, and "Fox News Sunday" the week after that).

C-SPAN Radio provides a commercial-free rebroadcast of all five shows in rapid succession, beginning at noon Eastern. Other radio stations rebroadcast some of the shows with commercials on Sunday afternoon.

Many local television stations also produce their own programs that air in this time frame, generally focusing on local or state politics rather than national issues.

Australia

Similar Sunday-morning current-events shows exist in Australia. These include Network Ten's "Meet the Press" since 1992, Nine Network's "Sunday" (1981-2008), and "Insiders", a political interview program on the ABC.

United Kingdom

Similar practice occurs in the UK, in the form of shows such as The Andrew Marr Show (previously known as Sunday AM) on the BBC and Sunday Live with Adam Boulton on Sky News; however, these shows have a somewhat-broader range, often intervewing figures from the arts, popular entertainment, and sports in addition to political leaders (similar to CBS News Sunday Morning in the United States). The first such Sunday show in Britain was Weekend World, made by London Weekend Television for the ITV network from 1972 to 1988.

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