A Clash The Talk Show Titans Essay

, Research Paper

Daytime talk shows are everywhere these days. Almost every broadcast channel has its own series of daytime talk show. To watch one of these shows, you do not even need to be home during the day: you can find Jerry Springer on at midnight. This report focuses on the differences, as well as the similarities that can be found by watching two contrasting daytime talk shows. For this report I reviewed two talk shows which I felt would contrast each other well. The first was Jerry Springer; his topic was ?Honey I Have A Lover On The Side.? The second was Oprah Winfrey whose topic was ?How To Get Your Power Back.? Both of these shows have comparable layouts but their similarities end there. This report discusses what these similarities, and differences are and then compares and contrasts these two talk shows.

These shows are similar in that they both let everyday people to come on the show to tell their stories. On Jerry Springer the guests were Arol, his girlfriend Jessica, and Gina, Jessica?s roommate. Arol came on the show to admit to Jessica that he had been sleeping with Gina. Arol also told us that he felt that Jessica might also be cheating on him. When Jessica came out he told her of his infidelity, and she then admitted to him that she was also sleeping with Gina. After the bickering and name calling that always follows these types of admissions, the show went to commercial and came back into a time of questions from the audience. During this invitation for audience members to participate in the show most of the people didn?t have questions but rather rude comments for the participants.

Oprah also brought guests on so that they could tell their stories. First to come out was Gina. Gina was raped and afterwards had felt so powerless that she went as far as contemplating suicide. She was finally able to overcome these feelings by confronting her attacker face to face in court. Next, we learned the story of Jodie, a woman who was pregnant with twins. Her twins were born 14 weeks early. Four days later one of the twins died of heart failure, every time a significant event in the living twin?s life came around, Gina would think of the loss of the twin that did not make it. This incident caused her to feel that she had no control over anything in her life and that he would never feel completely happy again. Both of these shows have different goals for there guests when they bring them out, The Jerry Springer Show?s goal with its guests is to show them off as if they are freaks, whereas Oprah Winfrey?s goal with her guests it to help them out and get them going on a better road through life.

Both of these shows are daytime talk shows that allow everyday people to tell their stories to the American public. But that is the end to the similarities. The main purpose of Jerry Springer seems to be, to put these people on show, almost as if they were in the center ring of a circus. Oprah Winfrey, however, takes a different approach. It appears that the goal of her show is to truly help the people on the show and give them a better outlook on life. Jerry Springer claims to want to help the people out. He does have a segment at the end called ?Final Thoughts,? where he tries to sum up the problems of the participants and give some advice to them and the public. But is this really any help? There isn?t really much help a person can give in half a minute.

Oprah does seem to really help out. She brings on an expert on the participants? problem and he gives advice through the entire show, rather than just for thirty seconds at the end. The expert on the show I reviewed was Gary, an expert on bringing back your power after you have suffered a traumatic situation. Gary spoke more during this particular episode than Oprah or any of the guests did. In fact the guests received very little airtime during the show, and most of this was a pre-recorded segment with a narrator telling their story. His advice is good and in depth.

Guests on both shows are also different in many ways. Jerry Springer?s guests are always people you would expect to see in a ?low rent? area such as the inner city or a trailer park. The guys always seem to be dressed in a sloppy manner, and the girls in a rather sluttish manner.. Compared to the guests on Oprah Winfrey who always seem to be middle class Americans with pretty good jobs. They are dressed nicer too. The men come on in a nice business suit and the women a dress, never sloppy cloths or short skirts. These guests seem to show that, to them, being on television is a special event, for which they dress their best.

The topic of the show also helps to show this difference in show goals. Jerry Springer?s topic for the episode I reviewed was ?Honey, I Have A Lover On The Side.? This seems to me to give an appearance of an almost voyeuristic show, in which people with horrible family problems come on the show, so the world can look at their lives and sometimes even mock them. Oprah Winfrey takes a different approach to show titles. Her topic was ?How To Get Your Power Back.? The title itself goes as far as to tell people that the show is going to give them advise on how to live a better life. Both of these titles say a lot about the show in general. Jerry Springer?s title gives the viewing audience a sense of a voyeuristic show, while Oprah Winfrey?s title gives the impression that the show is going to hel