Unlikely celebrities who were unsuccessful at hosting talk shows

Tempestt Bledsoe

Elliot Spitzer had a show of some sort that I saw a couple of times. It was surprisingly good. It's a shame his career imploded.

Toni Tennille

Charles Grodin

Cybill Shepherd

Chevy Chase (who was horrible)

Pat Sajak (who was nice)

Chevy Chase

Bonnie Hunt

Kris Jenner

Caroline Rhea

Donny & Marie

Candice Bergen

Gabrielle Carteris!

I enjoyed Bonnie's show, r6.

Geez! OP, good thread. I forgot about some of those.

Jerry Lewis

Megan Mullally

Megan Mullally

Queen Latifah has tried multiple times.

Tammy Faye Baker and Jim J. Bullock

Linda Dano and Dee Kelly

Have we forgotten about Magic Johnson's attempt at a talk show?

Caroline Rhea was Rosie-lite

Morton Downey Jr.

ROSEANNE

Queen Latifah thought she's Oprah just because she is fat?

The Tyra Banks show venture was a failure because it got cancelled.

[quote] Linda Dano and Dee Kelly

"Attitudes" was actually very successful and ran for years. Dee Kelly did not last long on it, but Linda Dano did.

Tony Danza

I remember on Roseanne's talk show she went on once about how phony Oprah was for having a book club, because according to Roseanne, "no one real" reads novels. So she and her guest (Joan Collins!) talked instead about reading that week's National Enquirer.

It was supposed to be funny, but it just came across as pathetic. Roseanne is sociopathic--she does not believe anyone has an inner life other than herself, and so if she does not like something, she thinks everyone who says they like it is just pretending.

That RuPaul snoozefest from earlier this summer. So fucking bad.

OMG, Linda Dano's lewks were EVERYTHING!! Butch femme realness Mama!

I love that beginning of the Carbnie show--the message is that all she wants to do is carry large colored flowers around and jam with suburban frauen.

NOBODY fucking rocked those 80s looks like Linda Dano, she was EVERYTHING.

I thought Jerry went back to school to become a lawyer. That didn’t last long.

More 80s realness from LINDA DANO....

George & Alana

"Carbnie" was a mistyping, but it actually kind of fits!

MISS SALLY KIRKLAND !! -

It was so bad, it never got past local basic cable here in LA. Any other DL'ers see it? It was hilarious. Hilariously tragic. She'd host local celebrities or West Hollywood council members running for office. No matter who her guest or the topic of discussion, she'd always find some way of mentioning her Oscar Nomination. One time I think she went a record 19 minutes before finally mentioning it before the credits started rolling.

I miss Sally. :(:(

Marsha Warfield (1990-1991) & Vicki Lawrence’s (1992-1994) shows were my favorite flop talk shows from the early 90’s.

I loved Charles Grodin's show.

Dennis Miller is not considered a flop?

Sally Jessy Raphael & Phil Donahue

Did you watch the vid at r18, r25?

Robin Givens.

Whoopi Goldberg

Bless you, R18. The SNL parody was almost indistinguishable from the real show.

I thought Harry Connick Jr. had all the elements to be a fraucentric success, but daytime TV is a harsh mistress.

Marlee Matlin

r40 has reading comprehension issues.

Wayne Brady

Katie Couric

Anderson Cooper

Re-read the tag and the definition of satire R47.

I thought Bonnie Hunt was great as a host. I was sorry to see it end. She would be good on the view if Joy ever quits. She's whip smart funny.

I thought Bonnie Hunt was great as a host. I was sorry to see it end. She would be good on the view if Joy ever quits. She's whip smart funny.

I used to love Chris Elliott’s impersonation of Morton Downey Jr on LETTERMAN 30 years ago.

The Queen of Palm Springs Suzanne Somers had a marvelous chat fest. The episode with the long suffering Joyce DeWitt is especially worth YouTubing

I have no idea how Ellen is still on the air. My 11-yo nephew plays her game-show shit on YouTube and gets bored of it after 10 minutes.

Kathy Griffin

Jenny Jones

Howie Mandel

Lauren Hutton

Sharon Osbourne had a short lived talk show around the run of The Osbournes

The Other Half - Dick Clark, Danny Bonaduce, and Mario Lopez trying to be the male version of The View

R33 why does the lady on the right have a marshmallow on her head?

Jenny Jones was fairly successful, r57.

[quote]Lauren Hutton

YES! The director managed to always have Lauren's face looming in the background.

Here, Anna Nicole Smith mumbles her way through the interview as Lauren mugs for the camera.

Whoopsie Goldberg has a show in the 1990 area. She had on Wayne Newton on after he went bankrupt. She handed him a check book organizer. He looked at her like he was going to fucking murder her. That was pretty interesting! I’m sure he said something. She wiggles out from it... it was incredibly rude to do that. I was surprised at her hostility.

*whoopie. But I like whoopsie better.

or Whoopsie Iceberg

Tha you for that, R54. I had no idea that existed.

Martin Short had a short lived talk show. I imagine he's a much better talk show guest than host. I can't see him sitting back and focusing attention on someone else. Gotta love him, but he sucks the air out of the room.

R10 Gabrielle attempting "sassy" I think in the first minute there. She didn't pull it off.

Marilu Henner and Tempestt Bledsoe tried in the 90s too but didn't last long.

No one’s mentioned Busy Phillips yet?

Mo Gaffney had a decent short lived talk show on in the early 90s called 'The Mo Show'. It was good, but there was an over saturation of talk shows at the time so it probably got lost in the shuffle.

Jane Pratt's show. My sister watched this religiously.

Donny and Marie

Danny Bonaduce

Kelly Clarkson.

Jane Pauley

Joan Rivers

Jane Pauley

Joan Rivers

These celebs that think they can host talk shows are pathetic. Stick to what you do.

Joan Rivers daytime show was successful, running several years and winning her an Emmy.

Chevy Chase was the worst of all. He couldn't even carry on a conversation.

Megan Mullally's show was a disappointment. After being funny for so long on Will & Grace, her talk show was flat and perfunctory.

Damn, I thought that the Bonnie Hunt troll had died. If they're not actually Bonnie herself, I'm certain she'd be happy to still have one fan remember her.

Leeza Gibbons

Marsha Warfield.

[quote]Gabrielle attempting "sassy" I think in the first minute there. She didn't pull it off.

It's hard to be sassy when you have cataracts and lumbago.

The Whoopi Goldberg Show was great. So was Lauren Hutton. They aired after the local news and had a cool late-night vibe before Letterman.

Joan Rivers was excellent and, as others have noted, award winning. Marilu was actually very good, and Jane Pratt was fine.

All the others were goddamn shit on a shingle.

There was a gay version of The View with Andy Cohen, Joan Rivers and Billy Eichner I think? Can't quite remember. All i do remember is Eichner sitting there totally annoyed looking. (and not in a comic way.) I think it was just a pilot.

Rick Dees and Alan Thicke.

There was at least two with Greg Proops on some sort of regular panel. Can’t recall either, though.

*were

On The Vicki Lawrence Show: Vicki Lawrence and Reba McEntire perform The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, originally recorded by Vicki and written by her then husband. It was her one hit back in the 70s and Reba remade it in the 90s.

Dee Dee Halls.

Miss Dini Petty

Alan Thicke

Mike Bullard

David Brenner

Susan Powter

Donny and Marie

DAMN R85 that had me dying laughing.

Anyone watch Ru's talk show from the 90s. Seems like he really set the bar and tone for what talk shows would eventually evolve into, especially late night. Such a game changer.

Do you think Rosie was good at being a talk show host? Didn't she have 2 so far?

You would think that the abrasive, combative, nasal-voiced Bethenny Frankel was the perfect choice for a talk show host...but no.