They say that cockroaches can survive anything because they are highly adaptable... and they feed on filth. The same can be said about tabloid talk show hosts.

Phil and Sally Jessy, Oprah and Geraldo, Jerry and Maury, Montel and Ricki... No last names were necessary. In the 80s and early 90s, American daytime television was peppered with talk. It wasn't exactly highbrow, but it was pretty harmless.

And then what happened? Slowly but surely, the genre began to degenerate into filth. Those who could adapt, like Jerry and Maury, survived. Those who couldn't, like Sally Jessy, the venerable Sally Jessy, with her oversize glasses and the all-knowing tanta grin, were forced to the sidelines.

Sally Jessy hasn't worked in a decade. Jerry and Maury are still swimming in filth, exposing love triangles and reading paternity tests in the deep end of syndication.

It's better not to be the cockroach.