A Sunday morning talk show is a television program with a news/talk/public affairs–hybrid format that is broadcast on Sunday mornings. This type of program originated in the United States, and has since been used in other countries.
These programs typically focus on current events that occurred during the previous week, with a main focus on political and sociopolitical topics (including discussions on public policy, national security, the economy and world events such as geopolitical and military conflicts). These programs often feature national leaders in politics and public life as guests to discuss the topics featured in that week's broadcast, in the form of one-on-one interviews with the program's moderator on a particular story as well as roundtable discussions in a multiple-topic debate format involving the moderator and a panel of (usually between four and six) guests. Depending on the country, some programs may also incorporate contribution reports from members of the network or television station's reporting staff on certain news stories featured in that week's edition. However, if breaking news occurs during the program, the regular format is often unseen or limited that week in order to provide rolling live news coverage.
| Program | Host | Network | Debut | Air Time | Replays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meet the Press | Kristen Welker | NBC | 1947 | 9 a.m. ET* | MSNBC, CNBC, POTUS,[1] Westwood One, C-SPAN Radio, Bloomberg Radio | |
| Face the Nation | Margaret Brennan | CBS | 1954 | 10:30 a.m. ET* | CBS Radio Network, CBS News, C-SPAN Radio, Bloomberg Radio | |
| This Week | George Stephanopoulos/Martha Raddatz/Jonathan Karl (rotation) | ABC | 1981[2] | 9 a.m. ET* | ABC News Radio, C-SPAN Radio, Bloomberg Radio | |
| Fox News Sunday | Shannon Bream | Fox | 1996 | 9 a.m.* | Fox News Channel, Fox News Radio, C-SPAN Radio, Bloomberg Radio | |
| State of the Union | Jake Tapper/Dana Bash (alternating weeks)[3] | CNN | 2009 | 9 a.m. ET | C-SPAN Radio, Bloomberg Radio | |
| The Hill | Chris Stirewalt | NewsNation | 2024 | 10 a.m. ET | Nexstar local stations |
(*) - time listed is the time scheduled by the network, local affiliates may delay the show to later slots to accommodate local news or other programming
(**) - considered the traditional "big five" Sunday shows
| Program | Host | Network | Debut |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Punto | Jorge Ramos | Univision | 2007 |
| Enfoque con José Díaz-Balart | José Díaz-Balart | Telemundo | 2010 |
Other English language examples include NBC's syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, Bloomberg Television's Political Capital with Al Hunt,[4] the PBS roundtables (often broadcast other days than Sunday) This is America with Dennis Wholey, Washington Week, and Inside Washington,[5] and the originally PBS, later commercially syndicated The McLaughlin Group.[6] [7] FishbowlDC includes all the shows listed in Daniel W. Reilly's definition for Politicos "Sunday Morning Tip Sheet," plus CN8's Roll Call TV with Robert Traynham and other programs, including CNN's Reliable Sources, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Beyond the Politics with William Bennett and POTUS08's Post Politics Program used to be listed in this category but are no longer considered so. C-SPAN's Newsmakers,[4] TV One's Washington Watch,[8] Hearst Television's Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien,[9] Gray Television's Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren, Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures,[10] and (until Tim Russert's 2008 death) MSNBC's Tim Russert Show among several others.
C-SPAN Radio provides a commercial-free rebroadcast of all five shows in rapid succession, beginning at 12 noon Eastern. Other radio stations rebroadcast some of the shows with commercials on Sunday afternoons.
Many local television stations (both commercial and non-commercial) also produce their own programs that air in this time frame, generally focusing on local or state politics rather than national issues, and may play off the title of the network shows, such as Hartford, Connecticut's WFSB-TV, a CBS affiliate which titles their weekly program dealing with state and local issues Face the State, a title also seen on KTVN in Reno/Carson City, Nevada and WHP-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, all of which serve state capital cities. The member stations of PBS also often produce their state/local political affairs programming to air on Friday nights as a lead-out of Washington Week.
The prominent guests appearing on these programs include U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, state governors, candidates for President and Vice president, cabinet secretaries, White House officials, and directors of federal agencies. U.S. military leaders, ambassadors, and religious leaders as well as prominent journalists and commentators. Members of prominent think tanks such as Brookings, Center for American Progress, AEI, Cato, Hoover, and Heritage also are often invited to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows.[11] [12] [13]
Various studies have criticized the shows for inviting predominantly white male guests. A study of the three shows on ABC, CBS and NBC from 1997 to 2005 found that the balance between Republicans and Democrats was fairly equal (52% Republicans), 61% of the journalists on the shows were conservative during the Clinton administration and that rose to 69% when George W. Bush's was president.[14] In 2010, a study found that a relatively small number of senior senators, all of whom were white males, accounted for the majority of all Congressional guests on the five most popular shows.[15] In 2021, the Women's Media Center published a study that showed overall 70% of the guests were male.[13]
The programs are generally aired live or pre-recorded, broadcasting from Washington, D.C., providing easy access to many political leaders. Many individuals appear via satellite or in studio for two or more of the programs on a given Sunday. Since Fox News Sundays debut in 1996, several individuals have appeared on all five programs on the same day. William H. Ginsburg, attorney for Monica Lewinsky's family during the Lewinsky scandal, was the first to perform what would be named in his honor as the "full Ginsburg." More common is an interviewee appearing on different shows in consecutive weeks; for instance, a presidential candidate may appear on Meet the Press one week, This Week the next, and Fox News Sunday the week after that.
Currently, only two Sunday morning political programs exist in Australia - Insiders on the ABC and Sunday Agenda on Sky News Australia. Former shows include Network Ten's Meet the Press (1992-2013), Nine Network's Sunday (1981–2008), The Bolt Report (2011-2015) and Speers on Sunday on Sky News Australia (2018-2019).[16] The Bolt Report became a nightly primetime show in 2016.[17] [18] The three free-to-air commercial broadcasters air general morning news programs Weekend Sunrise (Seven), Weekend Today (Nine) and Studio 10 (Ten) which include some political coverage.
| Program | Network | Airs | Host(s) | Debut | Ending | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insiders | ABC ABC News 24 | 9am10am (AEST/AEDT) | David Speers | 15 July 2001 | still airing | |
| Sunday Agenda | Sky News Australia | 8am AEST/AEDT | Kieran Gilbert and Andrew Clennell | 2016 - | still airing | |
| Sunday | Nine Network | 7:30am | Jim Waley Jana Wendt Ellen Fanning and Ross Greenwood Ellen Fanning and Ray Martin Ellen Fanning | 15 November 1981 | 3 August 2008 | |
| Meet the Press | Network Ten | 8am 10:30am | October 1992 | November 2013 | ||
| Sunday Agenda | Sky News Live | 8:30am9:30am (AEST/AEDT) | 4 July 2010 | 24 December 2017 | ||
| The Bolt Report | Network Ten | 10am | Andrew Bolt | 8 May 2011 | 29 November 2015 |
Similar programming to Sunday morning talk shows are aired on other days in Canada, including:
Similar practice occurs in the UK, in the form of shows such as The Andrew Marr Show on the BBC and Sunday Live with Adam Boulton on Sky News. However, these shows have a somewhat-broader range, often interviewing figures from the arts, popular entertainment, and sports in addition to political leaders, similar in format to CBS News Sunday Morning in the United States. The first such Sunday show in Britain was Weekend World, which was produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network from 1972 to 1988.
| Programme | Host | Network | Ending | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Andrew Marr Show | Andrew Marr | BBC One | 19 December 2021 | ||
| Sunday Politics | Sarah Smith and regional presenters | BBC One | 24 July 2018 | ||
| Sunday Morning | Rotating guest presenters | BBC One | October 2022 | ||
| Politics England | regional presenters | BBC One | The working title of 13 English regions who produce their own programmes on air styled as for example Politics South West | ||
| Politics Wales | regional presenters | BBC One Wales | |||
| Politics Northern Ireland | regional presenters | BBC One Northern Ireland & BBC One Ireland | |||
| Styled as Politics Region | |||||
| BBC News | Various | BBC News (UK feed) BBC News (international feed) & BBC One (In August & Christmas) | |||
| Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg | Laura Kuenssberg | BBC One BBC News (UK feed) BBC News (international feed) (Occasionally) | |||
| The Sunday Show | Fiona Stalker and Martin Geissler | BBC One Scotland BBC Radio Scotland | |||
| Peston on Sunday | Robert Peston | ITV | 27 May 2018 | ||
| Sophy Ridge on Sunday | Sophy Ridge | Sky News | |||
| The Camilla Tominey Show | Camilla Tominey | GB News |
There are several political Sunday morning talk shows in Japan, most are often broadcast live from studios in Tokyo (Nichiyō Tōron: Kioichō, Shin Hōdō 2001: Daiba, Sunday Frontline: Roppongi), Jiji Hōdan is usually prerecorded on Friday evening.
Nichiyō Tōron by public broadcaster NHK often features one politician from every party represented in the National Diet, in many cases the parties' Diet Affairs Council Chairmen. The latter was generally the case with Kokkai Tōronkai ("Diet forum"), one of several alternating NHK talk shows about political and economic issues sharing the same Sunday morning programming slot before they were replaced by Nichiyō Tōron in 1994. It had initially been a NHK radio talk show and was simultaneously broadcast on television starting in the 1950s.
| Program | Network | Airs | Hosts | Debut | Website | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nichiyō Tōron ("Sunday debate") | NHK | 9am10am | Toshio Shimada, Yasuhiro Kashina | 1947 (as Kokkai Tōronkai, radio)/1957 (on television)/1994 (unified a range of several similar shows) | http://www.nhk.or.jp/touron/ | |
("Current affairs talk") | TBS | 6am6:45am | Takashi Mikuriya, Kanae Takeuchi | 1957–1992/2004 | http://www.tbs.co.jp/jijihoudan/ | |
| TV Asahi/ANN | 10am11:45am | Etsuko Komiya | 1987 (as Sunday Morning)/1989 (as Sunday Project)/2010 | https://web.archive.org/web/20111024224821/http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/s-frontline/ | ||
("New 'Hōdō 2001'") | Fuji TV | Tetsuo Suda, Kei Yoshida | 1992 (as Hōdō 2001, "Report 2001")/2008 | http://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/shin2001/ |