Who's the best talk show host of all time?

Oprah. Hands down.

Late Show* not Late Night

David Letterman

The young Jon Stewart was amazingly sexy. But he reads as talented-but-an-asshole.

Graham Norton. He brings out the best in his guests. Very funny with a party atmosphere. And so rewatchable. If you're bored and depressed, watch some, it's often hilarious.

It totally depends. I think old youtube videos of Dick Cavett are fascinating. I was born in the 80s, but his clips are captivating. Oprah for emotional interviews. Stewart for intelligent interviews while keeping the humor present. Lettermen for his obstinance. Graham Norton for just fun and shits and giggles.

The best easily was Bob Costas

Dick Cavett and Graham Norton are both the best at what they and what they do is so vastly different that there is room for them both at the top.

But growing up, I always liked Virginia Graham and her show Girl Talk. Which tells you everything you need to know about my weird childhood.

Don't know about all-time, but I loved Craig Ferguson's interviews. They were free-flowing, not the pre-planned, practiced anecdotes on the other shows nowadays.

Michael Parkinson was always considered the gold standard in Britain, I was a little young to have watched him much but I remember him being affectionately called 'Parky'. He's conducted very famous interviews with Muhammad Ali, and a disastrously famous interview with Helen Mirren, it looked like he was attracted to her and made an arse out of himself, may or may not have left a mark on his legacy, the life insurance ad he did after his retirement (he only did one but they didn't stop replaying it) probably did for a while though, where he holds up the free pen you get if you sign up - one comedian cracked something like "oh and here's national treasure Michael Parkinson selling DEATH, but don't worry you get a free pen!"

I would look in to this whole subject more but my sound isn't working, morning all!

Conan O'Brien

Graham Norton, hands-down.

Definitely Graham Norton. Celebrities queue up to get on that show, not cos it's high-profile but because it's so much fun.

Dick

Bob

Johnny

Phil Donahue during the day a million years ago. He was the first to acknowledge that people who were home during the day needed more than soap operas. I remember being home with my mom and Phil was her break during the day. He and Oprah had 'local' shows -- his was Philadelphia (I think) and hers was Chicago - and they treated their audience as intelligent. It was nothing like the celebrity shlock-fest daytime talkshows are today. Phil quit when he saw the direction daytime talkshows were taking, that was gutty move.

Dick Cavett had great guests and asked great questions. But you his arrogance was difficult to take.

Tom Snyder - I caught onto him too late so can't give you specifics but he was great company in the wee hours.

Donahue owns the title.

Phil was smart, funny & could bring out answers from shy or robotic guests.

He could get angry (in a way Oprah never could) & give it back to an audience member better than she could.

Donahue was moe cutting edge than she was (I heard that Phil was credited with the first AIDS show in the US) & was more informed on topics than she was.

He could be a bit daffy or headline grabbing ("Phil wears a skirt") & a bit Catholic church obsessed but he always let the guest present themselves in a way that other shows didn't.

He wasn't a cult of personality like Carson, Ellen, Oprah or Jon Stewart, but that wasn't what he was trying to sell.

No dog food products, book clubs or recipe books to peddle. Just a host trying to make the audience smarter, richer or happier than they were before they started watching.

Bottom line = Can you imagine Donald Trump trying to do what Phil did for 30 years? The lies, stupidity, laziness & ego would've only lasted 1 season with the audience.

Dick Cavett.

[quote]Definitely Graham Norton. Celebrities queue up to get on that show, not cos it's high-profile but because it's so much fun.

Because he sucks up to them.

I think most of the people who like Norton are in the USA and like the novelty value of him. I find him and his forced giggle very annoying.

Dick Cavett is classic

Australia: Clive Robertson

England: Graham Norton, David Frost

Israel: Kobi Meidan

US: Donahue, Cavett, Buckley

He might not be the best but he's my favorite: Craigy Ferguson.

Donohue was dreadful. I loathed him. I used to impersonate him and all his body language. It was my party piece.

David Frost was pretty bad as well.

R20 Craig Ferguson was funny and intelligent. He would actually talk about BOOKS and invite authors on his show and have intelligent conversations. Startling for a late night talkshow. Now Colbert does it also which is refreshing.

I was going to say I hate all the English ones, but I loved Michael Aspel.

And good looking in old age.

Phil Hartman

All the people mentioned are pretty good at what they do. Someone not mentioned is Jonathan Ross who ruled the british celebrity interview talk show world in the 00s until Graham grew in popularity in the 10s with his new several celebrities on a couch format. Jonathan really was like a combination of Letterman, Stern and Graham in that he could dig and probe, adore celebrities and their movies and still tease them and be very very quick witted. I still remember when he called Nicole Kidman’s mother a bitch!! Haha! He was always going just almost too far. Graham is witty too and he’s format is great and really gives us a lot of insight into celebrities but I do miss the old style of interviews where interviewers were a bit tough and edgy and could bring these celebs back down to earth with the rest of us..Jonathan was great at that.

Overall however, Oprah wins. I mean she became a billionaire from it so she clearly brought in the viewing numbers. I think Oprah is a very dominant personality and she was essentially able to dominate us all into liking her and buying into her and her views on everything. She’s also very dominating on her interviewees. Kathy Griffin once spoke about what it was like being interviewed by her and said she found her very dominating.

Oprah is an entertainer, a showperson/huckster whose watchword is "Make them pay". THAT'S how she acquired her money.

Cavett, Donahue, Norton, et al are interviewers, using intelligence rather than the hard sell.

Classic Jonathan Ross here with Nicole Kidman who is a very entertaining person to interview..she’s very quirky in all her interviews. Jonathan says Nicole’s mother sounds like a bit of a hard bitch!! He also teases a hookup with Nicole’s 89 year old granny!

Oprah

Dick Cavett

David Letterman

Johnny Carson was the undisputed King of the Night for over 30 years.

It's surprising to see how he's mostly forgotten today.

Carson is remembered. Jack Paar, who was Tonight Show host before Carson, is completely forgotten.

R26 yeah but even in her hard sell or seeming lack of tact is an ability to get people to open up and share. Oprah is very good at that. Watch her interviews and see how she’s able to get interviewees to trust her and open up like they were talking to a girlfriend. And she knows when to reel them in with adoration and even cutesy baby voice and suddenly switch it up with hard questions and domination. She was the first interview person to be way richer and more successful than her celebrity guests and she could switch between “I’m an adoring fan of yours” mode to make her guests calm and trusting to “journalist” mode with hard questions and then switch to “I’m Oprah bitch and everyone is a fan of me” mode to dominate. She’s very skilled in a way that’s subtle and hidden because when she looks those celebs in the eye, she can see if they’re are full of shit and they know it..and they know she’s a bigger celebrity then them.

He was a terrible interviewer, R29, made it all about HIM.

Oprah, letterman, Barbara Walters, Stern, Graham, Jonathan Ross are all great because they have a sense of fearlessness and are also tactful and manipulative.

And Jack Paar SHOULD be forgotten, he was a pompous ass-kisser.

Jon Stewart? Dear God but he is, was, and always will be a SMUG self-absorbed jerk.

Phil Donahue for daytime. Craig Ferguson for night.

Old-School Michael Parkinson (UK interviewer) was excellent. The interviews were always about the interviewee, and Parkin was good at subliming his personality into the interview, almost so that you didn't notice him at all. He had a great talent for getting the best out of the people he interviewed, many of whom were not at all comfortable with talking about their personal lives (these were the days when the Celebrity was a rare creature).

Apart from him selling death, as mentioned above, I think there were two things which led to his downfall. Firstly he tried to modernise and add fluff and "audience appeal" to his show. This resulted in him adopting a persona which really didn't suit him, and also led to his guests being more showbizzy or madcap and zany, and fewer "serious" guests. The second mistake was when he agreed to interview David Beckham - and to let him have sight of the questions before the show. One of Parkinson's stocks in trade was that he never gave his guests advance warning of the questions. Oh, he might suggest, in general terms, the particular areas he wanted to talk about, but other than that the guests went in blind. If he had retired five years earlier, I think he would have had a much higher standing in the TV interviewer halls of fame.

[quote]she’s a bigger celebrity then them.

And that's the crux of the matter. Oprah and her ego, and her constant need to ensure that NO ONE forgot who was the bigger star and had more money. Domineering at its most petty.

Phil Donahue was an arrogant asshole

Wrong R37. Phil Donahue married an arrogant asshole.

What, no Merv Griffin?

Can there be any doubt?

Steve Allen. I think he was Tonight Show? Or was it just his own show? Anyway, he had a group of 'regulars' -- Don Knotts, Tom Poston, , Louie Nye, I can't remember the others. Next would be a great musical number and then interviewed guests. He was a master at it because he had such a wide range of interests. Also, he was the first to do "Man on the Street" interviews although they really were just his group of regulars riffing on whatever topic he chose. He had great curiosity which some of these current hosts lack. Colbert is the exception...he seems genuinely curious when asking questions (unless he's interviewing another comedian - then he just sets up jokes and plays straight man). He did a great interview on Anderson Cooper's show, very interesting childhood.

Jon was never funny. Colbert was a genius.

R42 Jon was a funny stand-up but not a good interviewer. Too hostile.

I'm going to go against the grain and say Craig Ferguson wasn't a great interviewer. Often lazy, patronising, and overly quirky - quite class insecure and pseudo intellectual too.

Ferguson was awful. All about him and his "hilarious" personality.

Tom Snyder back in 1973 or thereabouts. I used to stay up late to watch him. He's really the only talk show host I ever watched regularly. Conan O'Brien is the only one working in the last 30 years I've enjoyed, but I was never a habitual viewer. I liked "In the Year 2000," Triumph, the Insult Dog, and now, Jordan Schlansky.

OMG. Alan Thicke.

Graham Norton for fun. Conan O'Brien because he's so intelligent and his snarky attitude pleases my own.

The posts above are so many different types of hosts. I think you have to separate them, because the format and content are so different.

1) Late night celebrity interviews 2) Topical / political late night shows 3) Daytime talk - they were topical, but rarely had many celebrities and had a 'forum' discussion where the audience participated

I want to second the poster above who mentioned Virginia Graham. I grew up watching her and Johnny Carson. I was a fan of David Susskind, too. He talked about things other hosts wouldn’t discuss. Yes, Jon Stewart has talent, but I agree that his smugness is off putting. He always seems so pleased with himself. Honestly, most of today’s talk show hosts are superficial and inarticulate.

Ruth Lyons

For me, it was Craig Ferguson and his zaniness and his witty and empathetic interviews. Loved his skits too: Prince Charles' Rather Late Show was a favorite with the buck teeth and big ears - and J. K. Rowling throwing money all over the place because she was so rich.

Then I'd say David Letterman with the tongue-in-cheek sendups - sort of revolutionized the older earnest style.

Graham Norton third. Maybe then Dick Cavett - he was a change-up too (for me, anyway - I never saw Jack Paar or Steve Allen). Johnny Carson was good, for his time, but it was a smarmy time.

I actually quite liked Rosie O'Donnell's show - I think it was in the morning. She had a quick-witted knack for the genre imo. Shame about all the personal demons, interpersonal mess, and likely sexism that tripped her up.

1. Johnny Carson

2. Graham Norton

3. Craig Ferguson

Mike Douglas. Remember him? He had great guests.

I do remember, R54. He had celebrity co-hosts for a whole week at a time. I remember Joey Heatherton and George Hamilton - don't ask me why. Oh, and I remember groaning when he would sing (ditto Dinah Shore and that awful old-lady vibrato).

IIRC, Mike Douglas had a lean-in, up-close and personal sort of interviewing style, but maybe I'm mixing him up with Merv Griffin.

Joey Bishop was another one - a bit jaded or something - New York Jewish? Oh it was so long ago, but I did like his show. Regis Philbin was his sidekick, a real suck-up at the time.

Graham Norton hands down. But, if you want to look at a feisty old lady, look at Dorothy Fuldheim, who, at 90 wouldn't sign her contract unless it was for three years. Here she is in a testy interview with Jerry Rubin.

Carnie Wilson

Magic Johnson

Chevy Chase

Not Sandra Bernhard, though the first time it was interesting. Certainly not RuPaul.

Not Lauren Hutton? Remember that - shot into mirrors looking at mirrors?

Tempestt Bledsoe.

Another vote for Dick Cavett, hands down.

Oprah

R29. Betty Buckley had a talk show?

‘Cause I know you can’t mean that homophobic, racist arrogant asshole William F.

There's always the McLaughlin Report!!!!!

R41 Steve Allen for the undervalued and not remembered award. I mean only old folks even knew he had a talk show, right? (I think it was Tonight Show after Paar, and then his own show). He was a very smart, very well informed autodidact - would often ask off the wall, but searching questions.

Dick Cavett and Charlie Rose were both "serious" questioners... but seemed a little too full of their own selves, and their position in the elite intelligentsia. Allen was unexpected. Paar was narcissistic. Carson was stealth. Letterman was cranky. Griffin was sticky. Frost was stuffy. Oprah was sentimental. Leno was forgettable...

Graham Norton. No contest.

Jerry Springer

Larry Sanders!

[quote]Steve Allen for the undervalued and not remembered award. I mean only old folks even knew he had a talk show, right? (I think it was Tonight Show after Paar, and then his own show). He was a very smart, very well informed autodidact - would often ask off the wall, but searching questions.

No. Steve Allen was the original host of The Tonight Show, before Paar.

Barth Gimble

You can't beat a show where the host allows his/ her guests to just get comfortable and talk.

Maury Povich

Johnny Carson. I don't care about his private life. On tv, he was smart, witty, and knew how to interview. He'd set the guest up and then sit back and let them shine or fall. Most of them would shine.

R55 John and Yoko hosted his show for a week.

Cavett was always a pretentious asshole. His shows on YT are interesting for their historical value but his questions are so insipid and he's so desperate to show how clever he is.

One of the reasons for Douglas' popularity was it was an afternoon talk show based out of Philly. As such, it was very much East Coast oriented but Douglas had the sort of homey personality that the fraus loved. Lots of gaylings loved it as well as there were always Broadway performers on. But he did give us Mason Reese. Yuck.

Mike Douglas was so cool he guest co-hosts like John Lennon and Yoko Ono and people on as diverse as Mason Reese (the Borgasmord/Smorgasbord kid) to Janis Joplin to Broadway people to Lillian Roth making a comeback.

Tom Snyder -- who actually said on tv the story about Milton Berle and Forest Tucker's large penises and a meeting between them referred to as "East Meets West". Gotta love a guy like that!

Craig Ferguson -- just so goofy and charming with his lovely Secretariat and other stunts.

Johnny Carson was classic in his timing and presence and basically he was just there for such a long time, that folks would check in with him almost as a habit.

David Letterman -- his insincerity was his trademark, which was why after 9/11 his incredulity of what had happened registered so strongly, Plus his stunts were really funny, especially Stupid Pet Tricks, characters like Larry Bud Melman, and throwing things off buildings, etc.

Graham Norton, Craig Ferguson.

Johnny Carson

I used to love Tom Snyder on the Tomorrow show. It was something else.

Oprah Winfrey hands down, she's probably the only talk show host in history to ever reach billionaire status, hosting and owning 100% of her own talk show.

To me, that's beyond impressive.

Yes R81, as a pre-teen or whatever I just loved the very-late show Tom Snyder. Once he had a coven of witches on. And didn't he talk about it being eleventini o'clock or something like that - half looped sometimes. But always sharp.

Snyder also had Anita Bryant on and treated her like a superstar.

His career took off when Dan Aykroyd did his famous impression of him on SNL. His own career floundered because of his drinking problem. He had a talk show in LA at the very end of his career and it was very sad seeing him.

A friend and I always referred to Mike Douglas as "Mike Dummy". He had a reading disability and could never read cue cards; always stumbling over words. Remember his only hit song-The Men in My Little Girl's Life? Truly cringeworthy even back then.

Pamela Mason (James' wife) had an interesting show in the late 60s/early 70s. And Gypsy had a great show in the 60s coming out of San Francisco. She did wonderful things like recover spike heels in oil cloth with Tammy Grimes and Iris Adrian.

But Girl Talk was the best with Virginia Graham, a Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago, no less!

Dick Cavett

Oprah

John Lennon was on the Tomorrow Show with Snyder. He was talking about how he became a musician just to get a little "extra." I was maybe 12, so I didn't understand that he meant getting laid until Snyder said something explanatory. And I think it was on his show that Paul Simon talked about being sued by Joe DiMaggio, that DiMaggio wasn't ready to be thought of as a metaphor. It was a fun show, more free wheeling than most.