Worst Talk Shows of the Decade

Comedian Caroline Rhea took over for Rosie O’Donnell when O’Donnell ended her six-year run on The Rosie O’Donnell Show. The show changed its name to The Caroline Rhea Show and Rhea took her place behind the desk. But once Ellen arrived a year later, Rhea was out with most broadcasters. The show ran for eight months in 2002-2003.

Produced by Sony Pictures Television, The Greg Behrendt Show debuted the same year as Rachael Ray, 2006. Behrendt, the comedian and former only-male-writer on Sex in the City, tackled everyday issues from romantic relationships to parental relationships and everything in between. The sensitive but tough Behrendt didn’t connect with viewers, and the show was divorced from network television within a year.

The Megan Mullaly Show debuted September 18, 2006. Mullaly, arguably best known for her performance as Karen on the sit-com Will & Grace, planned to integrate the very best of the hosts that had come before her, namely talk show legends Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas. The show was pretty good. It’s too bad it didn’t make it through the summer.

Living it Up! with Ali & Jack lasted almost seven months before it got the ax. Hosts Alexandra Wentworth and Jack Ford gave the coffee talk genre their best shot, but they just couldn’t compete with Live with Regis & Kelly. The show received the worst ratings of any new syndicate show that year.

Sharon Osbourne, the better half to rocker Ozzy Osbourne and mom to darling dancer Kelly Osbourne, tried her hand at being a talk show host in 2006. This was at one of the Osbourne’s peaks – after a stellar run in a basic cable reality program – that Sharon gave chatting a go. But batted rating and worse critiques knocked the show out in less than two months.

Mix one part sketch comedy and one part talk show, mix, cook at 350 degrees, wait until hilarious - and what you've got is Talkshow with Spike Feresten, the longest running talk show in Fox TV's history. Your lovable host - though you're still not sure who he is, even today - was Emmy-nominated writer and comedian, Spike Feresten, famous for creating Seinfeld's 'Soup Nazi'. It’s too bad this delightful show – which ran for three season (2006 to 2009) on Fox – had to go. Our guess is we haven’t seen the last of Mr. Feresten.

Comedian Wayne Brady, a regular on ABC’s Whose Line is it Anyway? in the 1990s, starred in this moderately successful daytime talk show entry. Launching in 2001, the half-hour program picked up an Emmy or two during its short run, including Outstanding Talk Show and Outstanding Talk Show Host. But the stars never quite aligned for Brady. Within a year, the show had been reformatted for syndication and then survived two more years (until 2004) before disappearing forever.

Where there's losers, there are always winners. Wondering which talk shows made the Best Talk Shows of the Decade list? Let's just say there's a lot of truthiness to the list.