10 Most Disturbing Interviews in Daytime TV History

10 Most Disturbing Interviews in Daytime TV History

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at some of the most unsettling sitdowns ever seen on daytime talk shows.

Mariah Carey (2008)

“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (2003-22)

After the Queen of Daytime TV was called out in 2020, viewers began scrutinizing moments on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that now seem toxic. A 2008 chat with Mariah Carey was particularly cruel even at the time. DeGeneres addressed rumors that the Songbird Supreme was expecting her first child with Nick Cannon. She proceeded to interrogate Carey with champagne, until she confirmed her pregnancy. The guest’s visible discomfort suggested that she hadn’t planned on making the announcement like this. Years later, Carey revealed that she was not in on DeGeneres’s playful bit, and that a previous miscarriage made the pressure worse. It wouldn't take 12 years for this intrusion to get even more painful. Shortly after her reluctant announcement, Carey suffered another miscarriage.

Corey Feldman (2017)

“The Today Show” (1952-)

Actor, musician and sexual abuse survivor Corey Feldman has justifiably made many viewers uncomfortable by speaking his truth. The most uncomfortable incident had to be when he appeared on “The Today Show” to promote plans to make a feature film exposing predators who were still active in the industry. Matt Lauer grilled Feldman for the “Truth Campaign’s” goal of a $10 million crowdfunded budget, which Feldman asserted was needed for distribution and legal protection. His film project ultimately fell through, but he became a prominent figure in the ensuing #MeToo movement. Lauer himself later saw his career destroyed by allegations of serial abuse. Even without that context, though, his harsh skepticism about Feldman’s claim was at best in bad taste.

Fred Phelps (1993)

“Ricki Lake” (1993-2004)

What could have been quintessential trash TV wound up being a watershed moment in American media. The first season of “Ricki Lake” featured minister Fred Phelps and Charles Hockenbarger of the Westboro Baptist Church, who condemned social acceptance of being gay as a sign of the apocalypse. This statement was made more disturbing by the height of the AIDS crisis. But when Lake turned to the audience, gay people and allies denounced Phelps as a bigot who understands neither their community or Christian doctrine. As the guests became belligerent, they eventually left altogether… only to return a bit later. This interview is as difficult as ever to watch, but marked a moment when a struggling community triumphantly stood up for themselves.

Kerry Katona (2008)

“This Morning” (2000-)

The burden of fame on this former Atomic Kitten singer was distilled in her notorious 2008 interview for “This Morning.” She was promoting the controversial reality show “Kerry Katona: Whole Again,” which documented her undergoing extensive plastic surgery at age 28. She not only failed to justify this to Fern Britton and Phillip Scofield, but could barely form coherent sentences. Her apparent intoxication and admission to continuing to smoke, despite post-op risks, affirmed to fans that she had a problem. Katona achieved sobriety the following year, and has since made promoting mental health and celebrity pressure key to her public image. Her heartbreaking exploitation on “This Morning” was certainly its own cautionary tale.

“Teen Hatemongers” (1988)

“Geraldo” (1987-98)

In the early days of his show, Geraldo Rivera spoke with three members of the White Aryan Resistance Youth to expose the corruption of their ideology. The interview had already been postponed by a gang brawl outside of the studio several weeks earlier. Sure enough, the group’s rhetoric and confrontations with the audience were very chilling. Tensions escalated when Roy Innis, Chairman of Congress of Racial Equality, arrived to provide a credible counterargument. This ultimately led to a violent standoff and the group being escorted out. Though he sustained visible injuries in the scuffle, Rivera finished the show with his point proven the hard way. This infamous incident further discredited white supremacy, while contributing to the rise of sensationalist interviews on daytime TV.

R. Kelly (2019)

“CBS This Morning” (2012-21)

Allegations of extensive abuse against R. Kelly reached all the way to court. The 2019 Lifetime docuseries consolidated these twisted rumors, but the R&B star’s response on “CBS This Morning” sealed his downfall. A pretaped conversation with Gayle King showed Kelly as a smoothtalker with some eccentric flourishes. But his defense when confronted about “Surviving R. Kelly” was less-than convincing. And his outbursts about feeling victimized by the public were truly terrifying. Shortly thereafter, Kelly was charged with racketeering and multiple sex crimes, then convicted in 2021. At the very least, King’s interview finished off any sympathy anyone had for this clearly dangerous charismatic.

Scott Amedure and Jonathan Schmitz (1995)

“The Jenny Jones Show” (1991-2003)

The most infamous episode of “The Jenny Jones Show” didn’t go to air. In 1995, Jonathan Schmitz was part of a group of ordinary people whose secret admirers would confess their crushes on national television. His was male co-worker Scott Amedure, who was disappointed to learn that Schmitz was straight. Both men tried to stay polite during the interview, but the heartbreak and discomfort were overwhelming even in real-time. Never mind three weeks later, when Schmitz got into a drunken argument with Amedure that ended in murder. Schmitz’s conviction was a landmark moment in discrediting “gay panic” as a criminal defense. It was also a cautionary case in trash TV that exploited someone’s sexuality and humiliated two people to a tragic end.

Steve Dymond (2019)

“The Jeremy Kyle Show” (2005-19)

Polygraph tests were a hallmark of the UK’s premier tabloid talk show. Among the guests tested was Steve Dymond, who struggled with his mental health and insisted that he never cheated on his partner Jane Callaghan. After the polygraph contradicted this claim, he and Callaghan suffered a horrific meltdown on-camera. Jeremy Kyle intervened by harassing his guest as “a serial liar.” One week later, Dymond took his own life. The scandal prevented his episode of “The Jeremy Kyle Show” from airing, and soon ended the show overall after 14 years. It’s even been attributed to a decline in British tabloid TV, with footage of Dymond’s interview being preserved as a gruesome warning.

Zachary Davis (2015)

“Dr. Phil” (2002-23)

Dr. Phil McGraw psychoanalyzed a lot of troubled people on his show. But he himself was particularly unsettled by Zachary Davis, who in 2015 was on trial for his mother's murder. The dead-eyed, deep-voiced teenager admitted to bludgeoning the victim in her sleep in vivid detail. When McGraw later shared an abridgement of the interview, he, his guests and the studio audience were visibly horrified. The court agreed with his assessment that Davis posed a threat to society, as he was convicted and sentenced to 20 years. He became a popular case of ignoring serious mental illness until a gruesome turn. That “Dr. Phil” popularized this horror also raised debates over when sharing the signs is just exploitation.

“Klanfrontation!” (1997)

“The Jerry Springer Show” (1991-2018)

Over 20 years of salacious sitdowns made “The Jerry Springer Show” synonymous with trash TV. Still, it's hard to top the 1997 episode that punctuated its fall from serious politics. Springer seemed to return to that when he brokered a dialogue between members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Jewish Defense League. It was consistently clear that trying to bridge two extremist groups’ separation on race was a bad idea. Almost inevitably, the guests came to blows. While this sort of incident wasn't unheard of, deliberately engineering tension that extreme marked a turning point in how American daytime TV represents politics. Never mind how tabloid talk shows tackle difficult conversations. Just when it seemed “Klanfrontation!” couldn't get any more disturbing.

What are some other talk show moments that pretty much ruined your day? Let’s have a chat in the comments.