NEED TO KNOW
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Montel Williams reflected on his time as a daytime talk show host in ABC’s Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV
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Williams said that every show was trying to put the “biggest breasts” possible on air as talk shows became increasingly salacious in the ’90s
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Williams’ talk show aired from 1991 to 2008
Montel Williams is looking back at his eponymous talk show and the downsides of the culture that made it possible.
Williams, who hosted The Montel Williams Show from 1991 to 2008, is one of the talk show hosts who appears in ABC’s Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV. The three-part series looks at shows hosted by daytime stalwarts like the late Phil Donahue, Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael, Maury Povich, Geraldo Rivera and more.
The first of three episodes aired Wednesday, Jan. 14, and traces how Donahue, who died at 88 in 2024, was the first talk show host to tackle any topic, no matter how shocking for audiences. His show went national in 1970 and picked up more steam in the ‘80s. Then came Raphael, 90, whose show premiered in 1983, and Winfrey, 71, whose show began in 1986.
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Montel Williams on ‘The Montel Williams Show’ in 1993
In the episode, Williams, 69, reflects on how daytime TV talk shows became must-see, over-the-top TV in the ‘90s by finding increasingly scandalous topics.
“Everybody was trying to figure out how they could talk about the most salacious things there were to talk about,” Williams says. “Everybody did it. From Oprah, to Phil, to Ricki Lake, to Sally, to Geraldo, to me.”
The shows became increasingly focused on sex and scandal as they looked for bigger ratings, and Williams says it was an industry-wide phenomenon. “Early on, I did as many strippers as Oprah did, I did as many strippers as Sally did, I did as many strippers as Phil did,” he said. The documentary features footage of many of the over-the-top, sexualized guests, including sex workers, strippers of all genders, drag queens and dominatrixes.
“Everybody was trying to figure out how they can put the biggest breasts on air, in front of the American public. Everybody did it,” Williams adds. When a segment was successful — like a husband, wife and mistress confronting each other on air — the host said that producers saw the overnight ratings and said, “Let’s do it again.”
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Montel Williams in November 2025
Laura Grindstaff, author of The Money Shot: Trash, Class and the Making of TV Talk Shows, says in the episode that many of these guests were lower income with lives in “disarray,” which led to exploitation of the people who appeared
Williams notes, “I don’t think anybody had that intent, but I think some wanted to make sure that they utilized their guests as props to gain their best advantage.”
Show producers in the documentary remember that things got so intense behind the scenes that the shows would even steal guests from each other, going to the hotels where guests stayed during filming to poach them.
The series also notes that while the shows were openly manipulating guests to make good TV, they weren’t necessarily being careful about the psychological health of the people who appeared on screen.
During his talk show tenure, Williams was nominated three times for outstanding talk show host at the Daytime Emmys. The Montel Williams Show was nominated once for outstanding talk show.
Dirty Talk: When Daytime Talk Shows Ruled TV airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC and streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
Read the original article on People