UK talk shows today – the experts’ verdicts

Apr 7 2008 by David Williamson, Western Mail

Experts predict a “coarsening” of television chat shows as an unending supply of guests line up to reveal their darkest secrets.

While hosts such as Montel Williams and Oprah Winfrey would mirror the bedside manner of a family doctor when hearing a dramatic confession, a new generation of shows encourages gladiatorial combat.

Cardiff University media expert Elliot Pill said Montel would seem “rather tame” when compared with the hostility regularly witnessed on programmes such as the Jeremy Kyle and Jerry Springer shows.

If Montel was launching his career in the UK, he said: “He’d need to be more caustic and aggressive.”

Describing the American presenter’s niche, he said: “I think he comes over more like the soul singer of celebrity interviewers. He’s very smooth and very charming.”

Mr Pill acknowledged the confrontational chat show was “here to stay”, adding, “You have a willing public ready to come on.

“It’s just horrible – it’s like an addiction. You say you won’t watch it and you watch it for the next half hour.”

Psychologist Colin Gill did not think the participants’ lives would improve as a result of their television appearances.

He said: “The likelihood of catharsis is pretty slim. Most people who do it are simply self-publicists. With the growth of so-called reality TV the opportunity for people to have their 15 minutes of fame is much greater than it ever has been before. People equate being on the television with real achievement.”

Explaining the prurient interest televised conflict excites in viewers, he said: “This is a fundamental part of being a human... We call it gossip.

“Watching these programmes is often a very good way of thinking about one’s own problems and putting them in perspective.”

Violence was likely to break out on shows, he added, because participants themselves would have watched guests responding to confrontation with aggression.

“They will behave in the way they think is appropriate,” he said. “They will think this is normal and almost certainly ape it.”

He was sceptical that gentler chat shows such as Montel and Oprah had therapeutic effects, saying, “Whether group hugs make a substantive difference at the end of the day is a moot point.”

When people discussed relationship problems on air, he cautioned, their words could return to haunt them.

He said: “Unlike a chance conversation there’s not just the emotion that remains – there is the videotape.”

A further trend in chat shows, Mr Pill said was for the hosts to be celebrities themselves. Singers Charlotte Church and Lily Allen have each helmed shows.

One of the latest innovations is for comedians playing a character to interview celebrities, a technique pioneered by Ali G and taken forward by Al Murray’s Happy Hour.

Traditional interviews have been more difficult because of terms and conditions celebrities demand.

Mr Pill said: “The whole celebrity thing has become so sophisticated and controlled. You don’t see anything that’s not meant to be seen.”