According to Jeanne Albronda Heaton and Nona Leigh Wilson, daytime talk shows were once a good way to voice women's issues, but now talk shows have lost their meaning and promote viscous fights, bizarre secrets, and bad professional help. The Phil Donahue Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show were the first two talk shows to bring out women issues as well as child abuse and domestic violence. Heaton and Wilson claim as more shows began to appear and the rating wars intensified, the problems and issues on the talk shows were presented in a different manner. They think the shows promote actions such as name-calling and fighting. Producers and hosts want the guests to reveal all; the more dramatic, the better.
Wilson and Heaton state talk shows have become a forum for women to complain and confront. They allow women to come on not to help change what they think but to wallow in what they think of men and themselves. Normally presented as victims of abuse, women on these talk shows also have to deal with big thighs, bad hair, and pretty "other" women. .
Talk shows use topics such as cheating and abusive husbands that normally bring out the minority group such as African Americans and Hispanics. Heaton and Wilson claim this is bad because it helps develop stereotypical beliefs that white people have about the minority populations. .
According to Heaton and Wilson, talk shows covering common problems about love, sex, and work are often blurred. They go from work problems to backstabbing co-workers and love and sex to man stealing sisters. Heaton and Wilson say producers of the talk shows bring in therapists who normally give five- minute bad advice. Talk shows use the psychological explanation to bring out crazy revelations or to bring out old stereotype such as men are non-emotional. Heaton and Wilson claim this doesn't give the guests with long history of conflict methods to change their circumstances.