Alec Baldwin and guest Taraji P. Henson; ABC/Heidi Gutman(NEW YORK) — Alec Baldwin says his new ABC talk show will be a more “civilized” kind of late-night program.
The Alec Baldwin Show, which debuts on Sunday, turns the long-form interview style of Baldwin’s podcast, Here’s the Thing, into a TV show for the people who prefer good conversation over a loud party.
“To me there’s a kind of a — and I don’t want to disparage it — but for me there’s kind of a noisy, hyper-kinetic, very, very jaunty — like you’re at a party,” he says of the current talk show landscape.
“And I don’t know how many people want to walk into a party,” he continues. “A lot of people later at night, they want to get into bed and relax.”
He adds, “They might want to have a conversation with somebody or eavesdrop on one, not necessarily walk into a big, noisy party. So we want to make it as civilized as we can.”
The hour-long show features Baldwin sitting down with celebrities and cultural icons for one-on-one, in-depth chats. Sunday’s debut episode features Robert DeNiro and Taraji P. Henson. Next Sunday, he’ll interview Kim Kardashian West.
There’s no live audience and the interviews will keep self-promotion to a minimum, instead favoring a nostalgic style reminiscent of Dick Cavett or David Susskind. Baldwin says he was inspired by “anything that harkens back to the shows I watched when I was a kid.”
Among the others guests sitting down with Baldwin this season: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., RuPaul, Kerry Washington, Jeff Bridges, Sarah Jessica Parker, former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, Ricky Gervais and the Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg.
The Alec Baldwin Show airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
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