Listening practices in television celebrity interviews

Abstract

This article describes the listening practices of interviewers in US American television celebrity interviews in the framework of a more general account of listener activities. It explores how interviewers signal listenership, emotional involvement, and the uptake of information, how they prompt, aid and act as a foil to interviewees, and how these practices may affect the audience and the trajectory of the interview in progress. The purview moves from interviewer activities which match practices typical of listeners in everyday conversation to strategies directed at guiding or entertaining the audience. Interviewer responses may be directed primarily at the audience rather than the interviewee, and they can be more or less obtrusive or manipulative. Interviews are investigated in which Oprah Winfrey and Larry King go so far as to answer their own questions and to engage in co-narration and in the construction of direct speech on behalf of their interviewees. Jay Leno collaborates with a guest to produce an example of a team performance oriented toward humor built around the traditional interview situation.