A talk show (U.S.) or chat show (Brit.) is a television or radio program where an audience comes together to discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host. Often, talk shows feature a panel of guests, usually consisting of a group of people who are learned or who have great experience in relation to whatever issue is being discussed on the show for that episode.

Political talk shows of all sorts are common on radio stations across the country ranging from local radio talk stations in major metropolitan areas, to nationally syndicated radio talk shows such as the Rush Limbaugh show. Popular radio "shock jock" Howard Stern also hosted a talk show that was syndicated nationally.

Talk shows have also moved into the internet radio genre with live talk shows such as the Social Crime Syndicate (socialcrime.com) seeing as the internet is FCC free.

Politics are hardly the only subject of talk shows, however. Other radio talk show subjects include Car Talk hosted by NPR and Coast to Coast AM hosted by Art Bell and George Noory which discusses topics of the paranormal, conspiracy theories, fringe science and the just plain weird.

Talk shows have been broadcast on television since the earliest days of the medium. Late night talk shows including The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman have aired for decades, featuring celebrity guests and comedy sketches. TV news pioneer Edward R. Murrow hosted a talk show entitled Small World in the late 1950s and since then, political TV talk shows have predominantly aired on Sunday mornings.

Syndicated daily talk shows range from the family-oriented Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O'Donnell shows to "trash TV", such as The Jerry Springer Show.

Networks enjoy talk shows because they are generally inexpensive to produce. However, they rely heavily on the personality of the talk show hosts, which sometimes makes that host a valuable commodity. There have also been cases in which a person who is skilled in acting has proven to be spectacularly bad talk show host as in the case of a short lived talk show host Chevy Chase.

See also: talk radio

List of television talk shows

Note: Some of the talk shows listed below are temporarily or permanently off the air.

English language

• The Arsenio Hall Show
• The Charlie Rose Show
• Crossfire
• The Daily Show
• The David Letterman Show
• Dennis Miller Live
• Dr. Phil
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show
• Geraldo
• Good Morning America
• The Graham Norton Effect
• The Howard Stern Show
• Jenny Jones
• The Jerry Springer Show
• Jimmy Kimmel Live
• Kilroy
• Larry King Live
• Last Call with Carson Daly
• The Late Late Show
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien
• Late Night with David Letterman
• The Late Show with David Letterman
• Live with Regis and Kelly
• The Martin Short Show
• Maury
• Meet the Press
• Montel
• Night Stand with Dick Dietrick
• The Oprah Winfrey Show
• Parkinson
• Real Time with Bill Maher
• Ricki Lake
• The Rosie O'Donnell Show
• Rove Live
• Rush Limbaugh
• Sally
• Space Ghost: Coast to Coast
• The Tom Green Show
• The Tonight Show
• Topic A with Tina Brown
• Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
• Trisha
• Unscrewed with Martin Sargent
• The View
• The Wright Stuff

German language

• Anke Late Night
• Elton.tv
• Die Harald Schmidt Show
• Sarah Kuttner - Die Show
• TV total

Croatian language

• Latinica
• Sanja