Scope of project

I woułd say "talk shows aired in America." :):)

More seriously, I would have no idea about the naturalization status of many hosts. A necessary? Not to me.

I only know his because it's a major topic on his show. And I don't think you need to have papers to be American anyway (cc: secret Canadian Ted Cruz).

So we agree we don't need to worry about it ( except genealogically)?

There might be talk shows actually produced in US that air in non US countries. That to me would be out of scope, since we can't see them.

Hey, didn't see this until now. I've actually already renamed the project to Television talk show hosts. 99% will be American anyway. I'm wondering if I should expand it even farther to include radio talk show hosts.

I was thinking about radio, too, but a think a companion project might make sense. The lists for both could get lengthy.

So, I wouldn't consider someone like Daniel Tosh to be a talk show host because he doesn't have guests other than in taped, partially scripted bits. I think of him as a presenter; I'd put Betty White in that category as well unless she had another show I don't know about.

Maybe a clearer example...I'd add Carson Daly because of his late-night show on NBC because that was guest-focused for years, but if he'd only hosted "TRL," I wouldn't think of him because he was primarily just playing videos to screaming teenagers and had a guest on for like two minutes. Does that make sense?

So we should probably decide on a concrete definition now...do we want a list of qualifications?

To me, a talk show:

- Has a host or hosts
- Has a live guest or guests, in person or via satellite
- Is recurring; no one-time specials
- Interaction ("talk") with the guest(s) and/or audience is the focus

Maybe if we can agree on a brief list like that, we can put it in the overview.

Ashley when it gets that qualified it makes it hard on people, ok, on me. Could there just be a large project to "park them" and more refined projects as need be?

I was wondering about internet shows too.

Radio is, I think, another medium than TV?

I actually went off this page, which included Tosh, but yeah his show probably doesn't qualify.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_talk_show_hosts

I'm not sure why that would be complicated, Erica. Two of them are given; it's really just "are there live guests and is talking to them the focus." Identifying a talk show ("chat" show to most non-Americans) should be pretty intuitive for any television viewer. But parameters are still a good thing to have so that a broad project like this -- which is now even broader by internationalizing it -- doesn't become a dumping ground.

So I'm still partial to a very brief list to define it, especially where the names and formats are going to differ between countries. You need something to anchor it.

Match Wikipedia. When I'm verifying that a profile works in a particular category I look there.

I'll take Betty White as the example. It would take me reading her bio on Wikipedia in depth & carefully & think through the parameters - which is time & concentration efforts I could be spending on developing her tree. So whatever Wiki says she is - that's the categories I will look for to add to projects.

You wouldn't think to add her in the first place unless you already recognized her as a host. There would never be a Wikipedia trip. Put her in the Entertainment project if you're that strained over it and want to leave it for someone to sort. That project already meets your needs. Not a problem.

This isn't something I want to be difficult about. The objection to having parameters is nonsensical to me, but you two decide. But the fact that we already discussed one entry from Wikipedia (Tosh) and decided he really doesn't fit here shows why giving really simple guidelines to users is important and courteous.

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree -- live interviews seems like bare minimum requirement to be called a talk show.

No worries, just please make it simple. Otherwise I can't help much as I can't really watch TV much (eyesight) so I'm very reliant on Wiki for these things.