Regis and Oprah Gone, Will Daytime Talk Go the Way of the Soap Opera?

November 18-NY Magazine
By Josef Adalian
 
Regis Philbin's last show on Live today marks this year's second seismic shift in the once-stable daytime-TV landscape, following by just a few months the end of Oprah Winfrey's quarter-century reign as the queen of talk. Such transitions are part of TV's circle of life. Whenever big names move on, the culture immediately wonders who will replace the icon, and whether the newcomer can fill their shoes. But when Dan Rather took over from Uncle Walter or Jay replaced Johnny, nobody ever questioned whether the evening news or late-night TV could survive the transition. These days, change is more dangerous. Ratings for most TV scheduling blocks are way down; entire genres are in danger of disappearing. We've already seen love in the afternoon all but extinguished, with just four network soaps remaining after One Life to Live dies early next year. Letterman and Leno, hammered by brutal cable competition, now regularly average less than a 1 rating in adults 18 to 49. So with Oprah and Regis now gone, are we nearing the end of the talk-show era? Actually, no.

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