Sunday Morning Talk Shows - United States

United States

In the United States the five major programs, in order of their debuts, are:

While these are the "Big Five" that are universally included in the definition, not all of them are aired in all markets, and there are some other shows that are occasionally included in this category. Examples include NBC's syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, Bloomberg Television's Political Capital with Al Hunt, the PBS roundtables The McLaughlin Group, Inside Washington and This Is America with Dennis Wholey as well as Washington Week, C-SPAN's Newsmakers, TV One's Washington Watch, Fox News Channel's Journal Editorial Report, and (until Tim Russert's 2008 death) MSNBC's Tim Russert Show, among several others. Univision's Al Punto is a talk show of this variety that is broadcast in the Spanish language.

The talk shows often feature national leaders in politics and public life, including 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 also appear, as well as prominent journalists and commentators. Members of prominent think tanks such as Brookings, AEI, Cato, Hoover, and Heritage also are often invited to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows.

C-SPAN Radio provides a commercial-free rebroadcast of all five shows in rapid succession, beginning at noon Eastern. Other radio stations rebroadcast some of the shows with commercials on Sunday afternoon.

Many local television stations also produce their own programs that air in this time frame, generally focusing on local or state politics rather than national issues.