The Most Iconic Talk Show Hosts

Trends change all the time in television, with genres falling in and out of favor and the basic formats and structures of how we watch in a constant state of evolution. Today, streaming has replaced ordinary television viewing for many people, and this greatly impacts the sort of content that gets made. However, if there is one thing that has remained over time, it is the love for talk show hosts.

Whether on in the day or at night, talk show hosts have been a vital part of our culture since the early days of television, and it is hard to imagine our world of entertainment being the same without some of these familiar faces beaming into our screens night after night. Whether they are making us laugh or giving biting social commentary, they remain some of our most important media personalities to this day. Read on for four of the greatest, most iconic talk show hosts in history.

Johnny Carson

Every talk show host today wishes they could live up to the high standard set by Johnny Carson. Carson hosted “The Tonight Show” for 30 years, and in that time he has produced some of the absolute funniest moments ever seen on television, with the power to still crack audiences up many decades later. His legendary wit was lightning fast, and he has been sorely missed ever since he retired.

The cliche goes that he was so good that nobody can top him, and this is true. However, Carson said the same thing about Jack Paar, who he had taken over for, and he initially didn’t want to host “Tonight,” as it was then called, because of that. It goes to show that no matter how tough of an act to follow someone is, you have to give it your best shot and keep things moving forward, no matter how many doubts you have.

Oprah Winfrey

For 25 years, Oprah Winfrey hosted “The Oprah Winfrey Show” which ran until 2011 and ranks as the highest rated day time talk show in history. Oprah’s shows did much more than just inform and entertain. When people watched Oprah, they felt like she was speaking directly to them, and she became one of America’s greatest media phenomena. She was at one point the only black billionaire in the entire world, and she ranks as the most charitable black person in America’s history.

Part of what makes Oprah such a great show is that she has on ordinary people and treats them with the same respect and reverence that she would treat her most famous guests. This actually stems from her early years on her show when she was unable to get big names to come on, thus forcing her to settle for regular people with regular problems. What was built out of necessity ended up becoming what made her show unique, and Oprah’s ability to cut through barriers and connect with anyone was and remains truly special.

Dick Cavett

Despite being a comedian, Dick Cavett approached the variety show from a different angle than usual. As the host of “The Dick Cavett Show,” which ran in different formats from 1968 to 1986, he was known for having lengthy, in depth conversations with guests that ranged from famous entertainers to the great intellectual figures of the time. In a way, his show has more in common with the podcasts of today than it does with comedy shows of the time, but even amidst the great conversations, there was always a strong dose of humor stemming from Cavett’s signature wit.

Another way Dick Cavett stood out from the norm was in having clear political stances, and he was a thorn in the side of the Richard Nixon administration. One famous moment from the show was a debate that John Kerry had with John O’Neill, who was chosen by the Nixon administration to give a pro Vietnam war argument. Because of how badly that debate went for the pro-war side, Nixon said of Cavett (as revealed from the Watergate tapes), "Well, is there any way we can screw him?” 

David Letterman

It was never possible to top Johnny Carson, but if one person came close, it was David Letterman. His brand of comedy was more out there, absurd, and even dangerous, and there was a more adult side to it that he can only have gotten away with during the late hours. His guests would say things that they wouldn’t say anywhere else, and even without any exciting new information, there was hardly anywhere else to go where you could laugh as hard as you did watching Dave.

Dave left the show in an emotional finale in 2015 after having hosted the show for over three decades. In 2018, he returned to screens with his Netflix show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman” which saw him devote each episode to long interviews with a single guest. The title was certainly true as the first guest of the show as Barack Obama, a testament to the amount of respect that Letterman has built up over his long career.