Television talk shows include several forms and styles depending on the time in which they are broadcast on linear television, including the morning magazine talk show, daytime programmes, and late-night entertaining shows. Airing timeslots help the audience manage their expectations regarding the tone and content of the programmes. With the eruption of over-the-top (OTT) services in the media landscape, this key aspect disappears in favour of on-demand consumption. This chapter delves into the transformative effects of OTT services on television talk show creation and engagement, exploring the evolving media landscape and the intricate interplay of content, technology, and audience dynamics in the current media age.
Top1. Introduction
The rise of over-the-top (OTT) media has brought a profound disruption in traditional television practices, not only in the way that audiences consume content but also in challenging established norms and genres of the industry. This disruption has sparked intense competition, compelling media companies to innovate in terms of narratives, perspectives, and production values in order to gain subscribers and loyal viewers, which has reshaped the present and future of media content creation and consumption.
This context presents the chance and the need to explore new dimensions of media studies in order to understand the current media environment in aspects such as cross-cultural potential and readings of media texts, audiences’ engagement and media production and creation.
This new media landscape has significantly affected the essence of different genres such as fiction, due to the new possibilities related to production and new consumption patterns, whereas some other macro genres such as news programmes seem more unaltered by over-the-top services and still rely on linear consumption due to its strong live component.
A specific television genre that has been greatly affected and redefined by OTT media is the television talk show. These productions are a unique form within the macro-genre of infotainment focusing on a mediated public discourse, where discussions and conversations take place in an entertaining and engaging manner (Timberg, 2002; Tolson, 2001). In conventional broadcasting, the different forms or subgenres of the television talk show had a direct connection with the airing timeslot in which they were broadcast, and three main types of talk shows could be identified: the morning magazine shows, the emotional daytime programmes, and the entertaining late-night shows (Danesi, 2016; Mittell, 2004; Timberg, 2002).
With the rise of OTT media and the on-demand nature of streaming services, the connection between talk shows and specific airing timeslots disappears, which presents as much a challenge as an exciting opportunity for media scholars and professionals. On the one hand, the detachment from specific timeslots could potentially allow producers to have greater flexibility in content creation, and experiment with different elements to build a format that is specific for on-demand services and viewers. On the other hand, audiences relied on timeslots of the talk show to anticipate the type of programme they were about to watch, which shaped their expectations and overall viewing experience.
This disruptive scenario caused by OTT platforms lead to a need for a comprehensive examination of the topic. The objective of this chapter is to explore the ways in which OTT services have disrupted the production and definition of television talk shows, emphasizing the shift from traditional scheduling to on-demand streaming and the implications for the creation and consumption of television talk shows.
The aims of this chapter include analysing the evolving landscape of television talk shows in the context of OTT services, dissecting the impact of the detachment from fixed airing timeslots on content creation, as well as discussing the implications for audience engagement from a cross-cultural perspective.
To achieve this objective, this chapter navigates the talk show from a theoretical perspective, as well as the rise of OTT services and its impact on the traditional concept of airing timeslots and audience consumption. Delving into the implications of the current scenario, the chapter will explore the effects associated with breaking free from fixed schedules, as well as analysing the type of “television” talk show genre that OTT services are implementing. Are talk shows in OTT streaming platforms more similar to morning, daytime, or late-night programmes? Is there a new genre forming in these platforms?
Addressing these questions will allow to examine the creative possibilities that OTT platforms have enabled (if any) for talk show productions, as well as analysing the implications of format adaptations and the social and cultural relevance of this disruption, addressing the diversity or lack thereof in talk show programming of OTT platforms.