With less than a month until the underrated Bonnie Hunt Show drops off the air and four months until the Oprah Winfrey Show's grand finale, the daytime talk show landscape is about to undergo a dramatic shift. Rosie O'Donnell is reportedly returning to the genre to create a show on her terms and give Ellen DeGeneres a run for her money. Meanwhile, other networks are in various stages of of preparation for daytime programs starring Julie Chen, Tori Spelling and Fran Drescher. But before they tape their pilot or race out for a test run this summer, the ladies best study the mistakes made by the gabbers whose daytime forays fizzled out in one season or less.
6. The Tempestt Bledsoe Show [1995]
Number of Seasons: 1
It's true -- three years after The Cosby Show ended, Tempestt Bledsoe, better known as Vanessa Huxtable, got her own daily talk show. The 22-year-old host entertained her viewers via on camera fashion makeovers, self-help segments, gossip sessions and, as Movieline's own Louis Virtel fondly recalls, episodes dedicated to showing women how to find out "what is in your man's little black book." While the show was short-lived, Bledsoe would go on to collaborate with her talk show's executive producer Marilyn Wilson on the reality series Househusbands of Hollywood, now airing on the Fox Reality Channel.
5. The Roseanne Show [1998]
Number of Episodes: 281
Roseanne Barr's foray into syndicated talk began a year after the series finale of Roseanne aired, and although the show was actually nominated for two Daytime Emmys in 1999 (Outstanding Directing, Outstanding Talk Show Host), the program was more than a little unbalanced. The loud-mouth host bounced between dispensing advice to audience members from her cheetah-print chairs, squawking about rap into the ear of William Shatner and staging Roseanne reunions.
Highlights: Big Butt Fashion show and an interview with John Fogerty (below)
4. The Caroline Rhea Show [2002]
Number of Episodes: 195
Despite being hand-picked by Rosie O'Donnell, the Queen of Nice's successor could never quite get off the ground. Like the Ellen DeGeneres Show to come, this syndicated daytime show featured a monologue.
Highlights: Mariska Hargitay's rep debut, a performance by Hairspray era Matthew Morrison
Lowlights: Costume reunions with the Sabrina the Teenage Witch cast
3. The Sharon Osbourne Show [2003]
Number of Seasons: 1
This syndicated effort from the Osbourne matriarch, who at the same time was taping The Osbournes for MTV, was an immediate disaster. Osbourne frequently complained about the show on her MTV reality project and begged to get out of her contract. The series often featured Osbourne's own dogs, her own family and interviews from bed with her own dogs and sometimes her own family.
Highlights: Tracy Morgan and Anthony Anderson both co-hosted the show for three episodes each and Marilyn Manson dropped by to talk about having drugged-out phone sex with Sharon... in front of Kelly (below).
Lowlights: A dog-centered conversation with Megan Mullally and Courtney Cox.
2. The Megan Mullally Show [2006]
Number of Episodes: 71
Premiering only four months after the series finale of Will & Grace aired, TBS confused viewers by promoting its daytime syndicated talk show with teasers featuring both Mullally and her Will & Grace character Karen. When audiences realized that Mullally was nothing in real life like Karen Walker, ratings fell to dismal numbers and Fox News labeled the program one of the "worst talk shows in TV history" by Fox News.
Highlights: Frequent chats with Will & Grace alum Sean Hayes and any segment involving Neil Patrick Harris (see his Les Mis duet with Jason Segel below).
Lowlights: Sexually charged tickle fights with Sex and the City star Chris Noth.
1. Star Jones [2007]
Number of Seasons: 1
A year after departing The View, Star Jones premiered her self-titled daily talk show on TruTV, where the host talked law and pop culture. Within four months, the network announced that it was canceling the show, which bottomed out at approximately 80,000 viewers.
Highlights: N/A
Lowlights: What, you mean, you don't care about hearing Star Jones interview an unknown commentator about his one run-in with Britney Spears? Me neither.