Secret to How Celebrity Talk Shows Have Mastered Their Interview Content

This is a phenomenon for all celebrities and interview content which makes shows like Conan, Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen, David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon so popular among audiences.

I’ll try keep this as short as possible, but I think you will find this interesting once it’s revealed to you. We all love our favourite celebrities whether they be movie stars or djs.  If you asked your best friend to name 3 of his favourite DJs he’s ‘liked’ on Facebook or is ‘following’ on twitter they should be able to tell you them without a problem. Then if you chose one of those celebrities and asked him where they performed the last 5 times (not just once, but all 5 times) they probably would be able to give you 1 or 2 at best, then struggle with the rest.

One of the main reasons for that, is he unknowingly follows the 80/20 rule of being a fan.  Let me break it down for you so you. People like you and I have no doubt hit the ‘like’ button on celebrities we fancy and look up to. But then again, fans like you and I don’t scroll through their entire schedule/website/every social media platform they use when we wake up in the morning.

This is where the 80/20 rule comes into place:

• 80% of fans are interested in 20% of the content which public figures put out
• 20% of fans are interested in 80% of the content which public figures and celebrities put out. (Those are the beliebers and 1 Directioners)

Now it probably doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work that out, but look at the shows which host some of the most famous celebrities in the world:

• Ellen
• Conan
• Jimmy Kimmel
• David Letterman
• Jimmy Fallon
• And more.

These companies and shows are extremely successful because they take 20% of each interviewee’s ‘content’ aka ‘lifestyle/stories’ and turn it into a 20 or 30 minute TV segment on television. Seeing as we’re moving to a far more digital age, and you can see this reflected on YouTube channels.

Let’s take a look at the number of subscribers on YouTube the list above have, and you’ll see that they’re killing it in the content/reach/virality department:

• Ellen – 8,264,663
• Conan – 1,382,026
• Jimmy Kimmel – 3,792,134
• David Letterman – 24,313
• Jimmy Fallon – 2,024,903

Now while David may be a little behind the 8 ball, he’ll be sure to catchup if he keeps putting out content. What I’m trying to establish is that between our busy social lives, we live in an 80/20 lifestyle. Facebook has proved that with their EdgeRank system when you post something out to your users from a Facebook Page(only about 20% of them see what you’ve posted organically so people’s newsfeeds aren’t bombarded with every single update). So whether you run a Podcast/TV Show/YouTube Channel (or even operate similarly to the way I do on Meggle), it’s important to realize less than 20% of people are interested in EVERYTHING that is put out from YOU, and 80% only want the QUICK SUMMARY on what is going on in your special guest’s life during an interview.

Hence why these shows are so popular, because those 80% can subscribe to regular snippets of their favourite fans, and don’t need to go around hitting ‘follow’ on each of their twitter accounts to keep in touch. (No doubt appearing on these shows helps build their individual brand following).

I’ll speak more on the 80/20 rule in the future, as It’s application reaches many different categories across this blog.

So stay tuned!