The "Big Five" English language shows

Since the establishment of the Fox News bureau in 1996, five major Sunday morning talk shows have been generally recognized in media coverage of the format:

Prior to 2009, CNN's Sunday morning talk show was Late Edition.

Other American programs

While these are the "Big Five" that are universally included in the definition, not all of these programs air in every market,^[5] and there are some other shows that are occasionally included in this category. Two relatively recent Sunday morning talk shows broadcast in the Spanish language:

Other English language examples include NBC's syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, Bloomberg Television's Political Capital with Al Hunt,^[6] the PBS roundtables (often broadcast other days than Sunday) This is America with Dennis Wholey, Washington Week, and Inside Washington,^[7] and the originally PBS, later commercially syndicated The McLaughlin Group.^[8][9] FishbowlDC includes all the shows listed in Daniel W. Reilly's definition for Politico's "Sunday Morning Tip Sheet," plus CN8's Roll Call TV with Robert Traynham and other programs, including CNN's Reliable Sources, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Beyond the Politics with William Bennett and POTUS08's Post Politics Program used to be listed in this category but are no longer considered so. C-SPAN's Newsmakers,^[6] TV One's Washington Watch,^[10] Hearst Television's Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien,^[11] Gray Television's Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren, Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures,^[12] and (until Tim Russert's 2008 death) MSNBC's Tim Russert Show among several others.

C-SPAN Radio provides a commercial-free rebroadcast of all five shows in rapid succession, beginning at 12 noon Eastern. Other radio stations rebroadcast some of the shows with commercials on Sunday afternoons.

Many local television stations (both commercial and non-commercial) also produce their own programs that air in this time frame, generally focusing on local or state politics rather than national issues, and may play off the title of the network shows, such as Hartford, Connecticut's WFSB-TV, a CBS affiliate which titles their weekly program dealing with state and local issues Face the State, a title also seen on KTVN in Reno/Carson City, Nevada and WHP-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, all of which serve state capital cities. The member stations of PBS also often produce their state/local political affairs programming to air on Friday nights as a lead-out of Washington Week.

Characteristics of guests

The prominent guests appearing on these programs include 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 as well as prominent journalists and commentators. Members of prominent think tanks such as Brookings, Center for American Progress, AEI, Cato, Hoover, and Heritage also are often invited to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows.^[13][14][15]

Various studies have criticized the shows for inviting predominantly white male guests. A study of the three shows on ABC, CBS and NBC from 1997 to 2005 found that the balance between Republicans and Democrats was fairly equal (52% Republicans), 61% of the journalists on the shows were conservative during the Clinton administration and that rose to 69% when George W. Bush's was president.^[16] In 2010, a study found that a relatively small number of senior senators, all of whom were white males, accounted for the majority of all Congressional guests on the five most popular shows.^[17] In 2021, the Women's Media Center published a study that showed overall 70% of the guests were male.^[15]

The "full Ginsburg"

The programs are generally aired live or pre-recorded, broadcasting from Washington, D.C., providing easy access to many political leaders. Many individuals appear via satellite or in studio for two or more of the programs on a given Sunday. Since Fox News Sunday's debut in 1996, several individuals have appeared on all five programs on the same day. William H. Ginsburg, attorney for Monica Lewinsky's family during the Lewinsky scandal, was the first to perform what would be named in his honor as the "full Ginsburg." More common is an interviewee appearing on different shows in consecutive weeks; for instance, a presidential candidate may appear on Meet the Press one week, This Week the next, and Fox News Sunday the week after that.

Note