The Talk (talk show)

The original panel consisted of Sara Gilbert, known for her role on the TV series Roseanne; Holly Robinson Peete, 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/The 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 "child development stages" 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."[9]

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.[10] On September 2, 2011, it was confirmed that Holly Robinson Peete had also been released from the show.[11] 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."[12][13]

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.[14]

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.[15]

On October 12, 2016, the episode of The Talk aired special tributes to four CBS soap operas such as The Young and the Restless (March 26, 1973–present), The Bold and the Beautiful (March 23, 1987–present), and Guiding Light (June 30, 1952 – September 18, 2009), and As the World Turns (April 2, 1956 – September 17, 2010).

On June 15, 2017, Aisha Tyler announced she would leave the series following the completion of the series' seventh season. She said she would return as a guest host and to promote her various projects. Her last show aired on August 4, 2017.[16][17][18] The current hosts of The Talk auditioned ladies on air as "dates" to fill in Aisha's seat. At the start of the eighth season, some of the guest hosts included Carrie Ann Inaba, Garcelle Beauvais, Michelle Williams, Sasheer Zamata and Eve. Eve was announced as the fifth permanent co-host on November 14, 2017.[19]

In a promo for the ninth season, it was revealed that all five co-hosts would return to the panel. However, Chen did not return to the show for the ninth season premiere amid sexual misconduct allegations against her husband Les Moonves.[20] Chen officially announced her departure from the talk show in a pre-taped message on Tuesday, September 18, 2018.[21][22] On December 6, 2018, Variety announced that Inaba had been chosen to join the show as a permanent co-host and moderator, with a projected January 2019 debut.[23] Inaba officially joined the show on January 2, 2019.[24]

During the April 9, 2019 episode, Gilbert announced she would depart the talk show at the conclusion of its ninth season; she cited acting opportunities and her desire to produce other projects as the reason for her departure;[25][26] her final episode aired on August 2, 2019.[27]

The tenth season premiered on September 9, 2019, with Marie Osmond replacing Gilbert as co-host.[28][29] In addition to Osmond's addition, a brand-new, state-of-the-art set was unveiled.[30] In March 2020, the show was scheduled to broadcast without an audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but CBS later decided to stop the show altogether out of an abundance of caution. The show was quickly revamped as The Talk @Home and began broadcast using Zoom, featuring each host from their own homes. Osmond departed the talk show in September 2020.[31]

Season 11 of the show premiered on September 14, 2020, with the hosts returning to a new set redesigned to promote social distancing between the hosts due to the continuing global pandemic by removing the table that the hosts previously sat behind the previous seasons. Inaba, Osbourne and Underwood have a chair on the stage while Eve used a monitor screen to broadcast from London due to the travel restrictions between the US and the UK. Originally, Osbourne was scheduled to return to be in the studio on the day of the premiere but (due to a diagnosis that revealed that the daughter of her son Jack had tested positive for COVID-19 just before the premiere), Osbourne had to be placed in quarantine, and thus would be appearing for the first two weeks of the season via Zoom call with a similar screen to the one Eve used. Additionally, when Osbourne was cleared to return to the studio and be on set, Inaba had to broadcast via Zoom call for a day, because her autoimmune disorder increases the risk of her contracting COVID-19. On December 11, Inaba would inform her fans via social media that she had tested positive for the virus which caused her to be unable to be part of the final episodes of the year before the holiday hiatus (which included Eve's farewell episode) and on December 15 Osbourne revealed that she too had tested positive for the virus as well but was quarantining away from her husband Ozzy. [32][33][34]

On November 2, 2020, Eve announced she would leave the show in December 2020, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, an impending lockdown in London, and her desire to expand her family.[35] On December 1 of the same year, it was announced Amanda Kloots and Elaine Welteroth were chosen to join the panel; they made their first appearances as co-hosts on January 4, 2021 as all five were hosting from their respective homes as a precautionary measure due to a high spike in COVID infections in the LA area.[36] After a week of remote episodes, they returned to the studio on January 11.

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.[37]

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.[38][39]

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.[40]

Season six premiered on September 14, 2015 with a slightly new set design featuring three new large monitors with backdrops including palm trees and the Los Angeles skyline. 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."[41]

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.[42] 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 Nielsen ratings periods and in December), with the Thursday and Friday episodes being recorded on the same day as the Tuesday and Wednesday live broadcasts.[43] 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, 2013 to February 1, 2013, to help promote CBS's coverage of the National Football League championship game.

From January 12 to 16, 2015, CBS broadcast a special second "late night television" 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).[44][45]

From March 15 to 16, 2018, The Talk aired two exclusive episodes on their Facebook page entitled Keep Talking as CBS broadcast the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament games on the aforementioned dates. This special edition featured all five co-hosts communicating with their Facebook fans asking them personal questions and advice for their own personal problems. Unlike a normal episode the topics are decided entirely by the fans. Both episodes are similar to The Real's online exclusive segments and both episodes are around four minutes.[46][47][48]

Carrie Ann Inaba announced on the March 12, 2020 episode that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Talk would broadcast without an audience. Afterwards CBS halted the in-studio production of The Talk. Once CBS forced the production to shut down, Inaba began hosting a daily Instagram live from her own home during the stay-at-home order. CBS greenlit Inaba's show while including all five co-hosts under a new format titled The Talk: Chat Room which aired via Instagram Live. On March 30, 2020, the show began using Zoom, allowing the show's hosts (and guests) to broadcast from their homes. The format of the show remained the same starting with discussions from trending current events, host discussions, and having guests join who were also using the same video platform. The @Home format arose from the hosts doing a daily Instagram broadcast each day at the same time the show was scheduled to air. The show continued to use the @Home format until September 14, 2020 when the show returned to the newly reconfigured studio for the Season 11 premiere.[49]

The debut episode of The Talk was number one in its timeslot in 20 of the 56 markets.[50] As of October 2011, The Talk averaged 1.83 million viewers per episode,[51] a 25% decrease from As the World Turns's ratings the previous year.[52]

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).[53]

The Talk was criticized for a segment where some panelists made light of male genital mutilation.[54] Osbourne 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 filing for divorce. An apology was made during a subsequent show.

The failure to disclose on-air why Remini and Robinson Peete were released, or even to mention them, prompted criticism of the show from some viewers, with some fans of the two stars protesting their dismissals.[55][56]