Sunday morning talk show

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.

Overview

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.

Sunday morning talk shows by country

United States

English

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[a]	9 a.m. ET	C-SPAN Radio, Bloomberg Radio
The Hill	Chris Stirewalt	NewsNation	2024	10 a.m. ET	The CW, 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

Spanish

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 Politico's "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. Station groups may also syndicate programming to air on affiliates within a state, such as Inside California Politics for Nexstar-owned stations in California^[11] or Inside Texas Politics for Tegna-owned stations in Texas.^[12] 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.

Characteristics of guests

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.^[13][14][15]

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.^[16] 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.^[17] In 2021, the Women's Media Center published a study that showed overall 70% of the guests were male.^[15]

The "full Ginsburg"

Main article: Full Ginsburg

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 Sunday's 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.

Australia

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).^[18] The Bolt Report became a nightly primetime show in 2016.^[19][20] 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	9 am – 10 am (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	7:30 am	Jim Waley (1981–2002) Jana Wendt (2003–2006) Ellen Fanning and Ross Greenwood (2006–2007) Ellen Fanning and Ray Martin (2007–2008) Ellen Fanning (2008)	15 November 1981	3 August 2008
Meet the Press	Network Ten	8 am (1992-2011) 10:30 am (2011-2013)	David Johnston (1992–1996) Paul Bongiorno (1996–2012) Deborah Knight (2000–2009) Hugh Riminton (2010–2012) Kathryn Robinson (2013)	October 1992	November 2013
Sunday Agenda	Sky News Live	8:30 am – 9:30 am (AEST/AEDT)	David Speers (2010) Peter van Onselen (2011-2017) Kristina Keneally (2017)	4 July 2010	24 December 2017
The Bolt Report	Network Ten	10 am	Andrew Bolt	8 May 2011	29 November 2015[nb 1]

Note

1. Became a weeknight primetime program in 2016, moving to Sky News Live.

Canada

Program	Network	Airs	Hosts	Debut	Ending
Les Coulisses du pouvoir	Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici RDI	11 am	Daniel Lessard (-2011) Emmanuelle Latraverse (2012-2017) Daniel Thibeault (2017–present)
Global Sunday	Global		Charles Adler (2001–02) Danielle Smith (2003–05)	2001	2005
Question Period	CTV	11 am (Eastern Canada) 4 pm (Western Canada)	Bruce Phillips (1968-1985) Pamela Wallin (1985-1992) Craig Oliver (1992-2012) Edward Greenspon (2001-2002) John Ibbitson (2002-2004) Mike Duffy (2004-2005) Jane Taber (2005-2011) Kevin Newman (2011-2013) Robert Fife (2013–2016) Evan Solomon (2016–2022) Vassy Kapelos (2022-present)	1967
Rosemary Barton Live	CBC Television CBC News Network	10 am	Rosemary Barton	2020
Sunday Edition	BBS → CTV		Mike Duffy	1988	1999
The Sunday Scrum	CBC News Network		Nancy Wilson Ben Chin Carole MacNeil Reshmi Nair Asha Tomlinson John Northcott	2000s	2020
The Weekly with Wendy Mesley	CBC Television CBC News Network		Wendy Mesley[21]	2018	2020
The West Block	Global	10 am (Alberta, British Columbia) 11 am (Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec) 12 noon (Atlantic Canada)	Tom Clark (2011-2016) Vassy Kapelos (2017-2018) Mercedes Stephenson (2018–present)	2011[22]

Similar programming to Sunday morning talk shows are aired on other days in Canada, including:

• CBC Radio One airs a Saturday morning political talk show, The House, currently hosted by Catherine Cullen.
• CBC News Network airs the weekday daily political talk show Power & Politics, currently hosted by David Cochrane.
• CTV News Channel airs the weekday daily political talk show Power Play, currently hosted by Vassy Kapelos.

United Kingdom

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

Japan

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	9 am – 10 am	Toshio Shimada, Yasuhiro Kashina	1947 (as Kokkai Tōronkai, radio)/1957 (on television)/1994 (unified a range of several similar shows)
Jiji Hōdan [ja] ("Current affairs talk")	TBS	6 am – 6:45 am	Takashi Mikuriya, Kanae Takeuchi	1957–1992/2004
Sunday Frontline [ja]	TV Asahi/ANN	10 am – 11:45 am	Etsuko Komiya	1987 (as Sunday Morning)/1989 (as Sunday Project)/2010
Shin Hōdō 2001 [ja] ("New 'Hōdō 2001'")	Fuji TV	7:30 am – 8:55 am	Tetsuo Suda, Kei Yoshida	1992 (as Hōdō 2001, "Report 2001")/2008

1. Replaced Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, which aired from 1993 to 2009 before cancellation.

References

1. SiriusXM to Air "Meet the Press", Press Release
2. This Week traces its history to Issues and Answers, which debuted in 1960.
3. Stelter, Brian (April 24, 2015). "Jake Tapper will anchor CNN's 'State of the Union'". CNN. Retrieved 2015-04-24.
4. Reilly, Daniel W. Sunday morning tip sheet. The Politico.
5. Sunday Show Preview. Mediabistro.com
6. McLaughlin takes heat for 'Oreo' comment. CNN. 14 July 2008. Longtime Washington talk-show host John McLaughlin is facing fire Monday for referring to Barack Obama as an "Oreo" during a segment on his Sunday political program, The McLaughlin Group.
7. Informal discussion: "PBS Friday Night Talk Show Lineup Vs. Sunday Morning Talk Show Lineup"
8. Munsil, Leigh. "Sunday talk show tip sheet." The Politico.
9. Heil, EmIly (August 15, 2016). Hearst TV re-launches Sunday political show hosted by Soledad O’Brien. The Washington Post. Retrieved August 15, 2016.
10. Stockly, Ed (2021-02-13). "What's on TV Saturday and Sunday talk shows: 'Playing Cupid'". LA Times. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
11. Alex (2020-09-09). "Nexstar Broadcasting To Expand Weekly Political Affairs Program "Inside California Politics" Statewide On September 13". Nexstar Media Group, Inc. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
12. "Inside Texas Politics". wfaa.com. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
13. Savillo, Rob (2013-10-11). "REPORT: Once Again, Sunday Morning Talk Shows Are White, Male, And Conservative". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
14. Spencer Sairam, Erin (2021-09-29). "America's Five Big Sunday Shows Remain Very Male, Very White". forbes. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
15. "WMC Report: Gender and Race Representation on Five Big Sunday Shows". Women's Media Center. 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
16. "An analysis of the Sunday talk show guests on ABC, CBS, and NBC, 1997 – 2005" (PDF). media matters. 2006-02-14. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
17. Somanader, Tanya (2010-09-13). "Study: 'People Who Matter' To Sunday Talk Shows Are 'White, Male, Senior, and Republican'". thinkprogress.org. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
18. Byrnes, Holly (October 29, 2017). "David Speers and Kristina Keneally to lead Sky News' extensive investment in new programming". news.com.au. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
19. Knox, David (21 March 2016). "The Bolt Report shifting to SKY News". TV Tonight. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
20. Christensen, Nic (21 March 2016). "Sky News revives Andrew Bolt's The Bolt Report, moving it to five nights a week". Mumbrella. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
21. "Wendy Mesley to host live CBC talk show on Sunday mornings". Toronto Star, July 27, 2017.
22. "CTV's Question Period to face competition". Toronto Star, September 9, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2022