Secrets of the Talk Show Era
Photo: George Burns/Harpo Studios
For the first time ever, five legends of daytime talk—Phil Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael, Geraldo Rivera, Montel Williams and Ricki Lake—join Oprah on her stage.
Find out what these five legends are up to today.
While The Oprah Show has been the top talk show for all of its 25 years on the air, there were a few days when other shows won the ratings battle.
Geraldo says he'll never forget one of the days he beat Oprah. He'd invited a neo-Nazi, an anti-racist skinhead, a black civil rights activist and a Jewish activist on the show. Before long, tensions erupted in a fistfight—both on the stage and in the audience. When someone threw a chair, it broke Geraldo's nose.
Geraldo says he still owns the chair. "Aside from the sensational aspect of it and the commercial clout of it, fighting neo-Nazis is not such a bad thing when you're a Puerto Rican Jew," he says.
With her appeal to younger viewers, Ricki says her show started getting "Oprah numbers" in the second and third seasons. But she says she never would have been able to do it without Oprah's help. "Before I went on the air ... you invited me to sit in your audience to see how you worked, to watch you, to watch your producing team," Ricki says. "You did help me in beating you those years."
"Boy, that is generous to a fault," Oprah jokes. "I'm so happy about that."
Find out what these five legends are up to today.
While The Oprah Show has been the top talk show for all of its 25 years on the air, there were a few days when other shows won the ratings battle.
Geraldo says he'll never forget one of the days he beat Oprah. He'd invited a neo-Nazi, an anti-racist skinhead, a black civil rights activist and a Jewish activist on the show. Before long, tensions erupted in a fistfight—both on the stage and in the audience. When someone threw a chair, it broke Geraldo's nose.
Geraldo says he still owns the chair. "Aside from the sensational aspect of it and the commercial clout of it, fighting neo-Nazis is not such a bad thing when you're a Puerto Rican Jew," he says.
With her appeal to younger viewers, Ricki says her show started getting "Oprah numbers" in the second and third seasons. But she says she never would have been able to do it without Oprah's help. "Before I went on the air ... you invited me to sit in your audience to see how you worked, to watch you, to watch your producing team," Ricki says. "You did help me in beating you those years."
"Boy, that is generous to a fault," Oprah jokes. "I'm so happy about that."
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