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YYou may think that TV chat is an easy way to get it right. Hire a well-liked character with comic chops and successful shows under their belt. Create a fun set with a large sofa in the middle. Book some A-list celebrities as well as a certified comedian, invite the audience to come et voilà! A long-term pulse is born.
Except that from time to time, it has proven to be so light. Just ask Claudia Winkleman, who revealed last week that she will not be returning to host the second season of The Claudia Winkleman Show on the BBC. The series, which started in March, fills a gap when the Graham Norton Show was on hiatus, was received with warm reviews and such votes. The decision to call time is said to be Winkleman’s – “I was too nervous to be happy,” he admitted – but, given the wounds he’s been through in the agency, he may have decided to jump before he was pushed.
Part of the problem is that Winkleman didn’t agree An impressive version of Nortonit has been developed for almost twenty years. As well as approaching his A-list guests with warmth and irreverence, Norton is a sharp butler, adept at keeping everyone engaged and, thanks to a well-stocked bar, lightly greased. It is not as simple as it seems.
By contrast, seated in a sad chair and the audience placed in close proximity to the talent, Winkleman let the dialogue flow and blurt out – “That’s the best thing anyone’s ever said,” shouted Tom Allen after a slow murmur of fellow guests. It may be that, following a careful analysis of the first series, Winkleman would have found his song in a second. But for the presenter still rise above success of The Traitors, and who has shown himself to be bright, spontaneous and funny in front of other shows, it was not worth taking another serious risk.
Winkleman is not the first presenter to come up with a cartoon for a chat show. In 2006, Davina McCall, who was the host of Big Brother, it is designed around due to his chat show being canceled after one series. The same decade also brought a short one Lily Allen and Friends is a Channel 4 sub-series Charlotte Church Showcasewhile the absence of the hosts made them look uncomfortable and serious.
A common annoyance in these banned shows are the female hosts. Allen and Church fell out but, like Winkleman, McCall seemed a good fit. However, for reasons that are hard to fathom, the night club has always been a men’s safe haven. Johnny Carson, Larry King, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart and Jimmys Fallon and Kimmel all reigned supreme in the US, while Michael Parkinson, Russell Harty, Terry Wogan, Jonathan Ross, Alan Carr and Graham Norton have done the same here. Comedians, it seems, are very popular with the audience. The only woman to succeed on the road in the UK was on the cover of a comedian: Mrs Merton, a creation of the late Caroline Aherne, he slyly burned his guests in a false way, he asks Bernard Manning: “Who do you vote for when Hitler dies?”
But there is another threat that is facing the chat that goes beyond the resistance of the hosts. Until recently, an A-lister with a new movie/television/album hit in the UK would line up The Graham Norton Show or its ITV equivalent, The Jonathan Ross Show. But now there are many podcasts, many of them working in video and audio, which not only provide a simple interface and the opportunity to connect their latest technology but also long and deep discussions.
Not all podcasts are created equal – many feature unqualified celebrities listening and asking probing questions – but the public’s appetite for them hasn’t changed. Once again, the male crowd dominates, among them Joe Rogan, Steven Bartlett, Louis Theroux and Romesh Ranganathan, although women are starting to get more attention. Take it Start againa series of questions about the renewal of middle life set in 2024 which has featured Fatboy Slim, Gisèle Pelicot, Richard E Grant and Gillian Anderson as guests. The host? This could be former chatshow kryptonite Davina McCall.
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All of this suggests that the Winkleman-fronted interview series is not dead in the water. If he wanted to have another challenge, his bet would be to distract the audience with a large sofa, and bypass all the traditions.
