Talk Show Guests This Week (Sept. 14-18, 2026): Tom Cruise, Stephen Colbert, Salma Hayek Pinault and LISA

The short version: Tom Cruise is on Fallon Thursday, Stephen Colbert turns up in Jimmy Kimmel's guest chair Tuesday, four months after CBS ended The Late Show, and Salma Hayek Pinault does two shows in one day Monday. LISA and Benny Blanco take Wednesday, and Kenny Chesney closes the week on The View.

Updated Thursday morning: The week's last blank has been filled. The Daily Show has Michael Kosta in the chair tonight with sportswriter Giri Nathan, and Kimmel has added the band Dragonflies to the Sarah Paulson hour. Wednesday delivered as listed — LISA and Benny Blanco on Fallon, Colin Kaepernick with Josh Johnson — so every night from Tuesday on is now confirmed on two sources or more.

One date reshapes everything. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards ran Monday night on NBC from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with Mariska Hargitay hosting, so Kimmel was an encore Monday and The Daily Show skipped the night entirely. Kimmel, The Daily Show and the retired Late Show were all up for the same prize, and the Late Show took it by itself; our Outstanding Variety Series results page has the full field.

Who is on talk shows Monday, Sept. 14?

Daytime carried the morning. Colin Kaepernick took The View's full hour for his book The Perilous Fight, and Salma Hayek Pinault did Live with Hoobastank playing before turning up on Fallon that night with Becky G, Andrew Huberman and Angine de Poitrine. Drew Barrymore opened Season 7 from the Daisy Chain Fields festival with Olivia Rodrigo, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson.

At night the Emmys took everything. Andy Cohen ran WWHL at 9 p.m. opposite the telecast's first hour, Kimmel repeated his Sept. 9 show with Mariska Hargitay while Hargitay was live on NBC hosting, and The Daily Show sat the night out.

Who is on Tuesday, Sept. 15?

This was the week's real headline and it held up. Stephen Colbert took Kimmel's guest chair less than 24 hours after his old show won the top variety Emmy, four months after CBS retired his 11:35 hour. He was the only sit-down guest, the beard came off on camera to settle a bet, and the Captain America shield from his old set now hangs on Kimmel's wall.

Fallon countered with Helen Mirren, Alan Cumming and Jake Shane, with stand-up Jay Jurden closing — two knights of the British stage and a TikTok podcaster on one couch. Neil deGrasse Tyson doubled up in daytime on The View and Live, where Joel McHale also stopped in, and WWHL had Chelsea Frei and Jessel Taank. Drew's festival week ran Sarah McLachlan and Neil Patrick Harris.

The Daily Show came back Tuesday after skipping Monday without naming a host in advance, which has been the summer pattern while correspondents rotate. Jon Stewart does not take Mondays back until Sept. 21.

Who is on Wednesday, Sept. 16?

Fallon had LISA and Benny Blanco with Jungle performing and breakdancer Rachael "Raygun" Gunn rounding out the couch. Kimmel went the other direction with Bill Burr and H.E.R., Judith Hill staying for a second night.

The Daily Show ran Colin Kaepernick at 11 with Josh Johnson hosting — the same book that filled The View's hour Monday, making Kaepernick the only guest this week to land both a daytime panel and a late-night desk. Ke Huy Quan had The View for his memoir, and Drew took Shirley Manson from the festival plus Hasan Minhaj and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan.

Two Wednesday oddities are worth keeping on file. Bravo moved WWHL to 10:15 p.m. for Bronwyn Newport and Jon Lovett, and Live's guest names — Jane Krakowski and Sharon Horgan — came from one lineup service rather than the station grid, the only entry this week that never got a second source.

Who is on Thursday, Sept. 17?

Tom Cruise. That is the whole pitch for Thursday, and Fallon surrounds him with Lili Reinhart and Suki Waterhouse at 11:35 p.m. It is the last first-run hour of the week on any of the four desks, and Fallon's own week-by-week schedule page tracks which nights run new.

Kimmel answers with Sarah Paulson and comedian Rory Scovel, the band Dragonflies and a third straight night of Judith Hill in the music slot. The Daily Show's blank finally filled in this morning: Michael Kosta hosts, with Defector writer Giri Nathan as the guest — a sportswriter rather than a promotional booking, which is the kind of interview the rotating chair keeps choosing.

Daytime is a Fallon rebound. Alan Cumming crosses from Tuesday's Tonight Show to Live, where Paula Cole performs on the show's Shopping Day hour; Helen Mirren and Jake Shane make the same jump to Drew, who also runs a festival sit-down with Mitski. The View pairs Ethan Hawke, promoting The Weight, with a Clay Aiken performance from Rewind, and WWHL closes Bravo's week at 9 p.m. with Carmella Garcia and Chelsea Green.

Seth Meyers fills 12:35 with a July repeat — Carey Mulligan and Mary Beth Barone, first aired July 29 — for one more night before his return Monday.

What is left on Friday, Sept. 18?

Daytime only, as usual now. The View turns the hour into a birthday show for Sara Haines with Kenny Chesney on hand for Silver Sands Marina, and Live wraps Do It Again week with Theo James talking The Gentlemen and Carson Kressley on his podcast. Drew closes its first week with Benny Blanco, Sunny Anderson in the kitchen and Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna from the festival.

Nothing new arrives after 11 p.m. on the networks. Kimmel, The Daily Show and WWHL have all dropped Friday tapings; Fallon replays the Sept. 8 hour with Sandra Bullock and Mike D, and Seth Meyers runs his July 28 show with Tom Holland, Stavros Halkias and Dan Mintz.

Correction, Friday: Real Time with Bill Maher does have a new hour tonight, which we had listed as unscheduled. HBO has it at 10 p.m. ET with Kevin Roose in the interview chair on his book about the race to build artificial superintelligence, plus Christopher Rufo and Jessica Tarlov on the panel.

Bravo may come back before Monday does. TVmaze lists a WWHL Sunday show at 10 p.m. ET with Benny Blanco and Becky G — Blanco's third stop of the week if it holds — but Bravo's own weekly lineup still stops at Thursday, so it is not confirmed. Our explainer on why late night reruns on Fridays covers how the four-night week became normal, and the two shows people ask about most now have their own pages: is The Tonight Show new tonight and is Seth Meyers new tonight, whose break ends Monday. Daytime keeps its Friday hours — see is The View on today.

Which guests are doing the rounds this week?

Seven names land on two different shows this week, three of them through Fallon first. That is the shape of a normal promotion week rather than a premiere scramble. The Judith Hill run is the outlier: Kimmel has booked her as the house music act for three straight nights.

What time is each show on, and where does it stream?

Central and Mountain viewers subtract an hour from the network shows; on the West Coast the 11:35 pair airs at 11:35 local off a separate feed. The two cable half hours hold the same clock time coast to coast.

The syndicated hours belong to your station rather than to a network, so Live at 9 a.m. and Drew in the afternoon are common patterns, not guarantees. Our daytime schedule guide lists the usual slots by market, and the 2026 late-night schedule does the same after dark.

Which shows are dark or in repeats?

Meyers has been out seven and a half weeks, the longest planned break of his run.

Monday's Emmy telecast is the reason most of those holes exist. If you want the carpet rather than the couches, our sister site has the Emmys red-carpet start time and streaming options and a running look at Mariska Hargitay's host wardrobe.

How do you watch all of this without cable?

Broadcast first, streaming a day later. Peacock picks up Fallon and Meyers, Hulu takes Kimmel, The View and Live, Paramount+ carries The Daily Show and Drew, and Bravo's half hour lands on Peacock overnight.

Full episodes and clips are not the same thing, which trips people up most often with the syndicated hours. The cord-cutting guide spells out which of those five services you actually need for the shows you follow.

FAQ

Is Jimmy Kimmel new on Monday, Sept. 14? No. ABC has an encore of the Sept. 9 episode while the Emmys air on NBC.

When is Stephen Colbert on Kimmel? Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 11:35 p.m. ET, the night after The Late Show won at the Emmys. It streams on Hulu from Wednesday.

Why is The Daily Show not on Monday? Comedy Central has not scheduled a Monday episode this week; new shows run Tuesday through Thursday, and Jon Stewart resumes Mondays on Sept. 21.

When does Seth Meyers come back with new episodes? Sept. 21. Everything before that is a repeat.

Who is on The Drew Barrymore Show this week? Olivia Rodrigo, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson on Monday's Season 7 premiere; Sarah McLachlan and Neil Patrick Harris Tuesday; Shirley Manson, Hasan Minhaj and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Wednesday; Helen Mirren, Jake Shane and Mitski Thursday; Benny Blanco, Sunny Anderson and Kathleen Hanna Friday.

Are all of these guests confirmed? Every name above appears in the public listings and at least one second lineup source, including Thursday's Daily Show pairing, which was blank until this morning. Wednesday's Live guests stayed single-source and are the only entry on this board that never cleared.

Who is on The Daily Show tonight? Giri Nathan, with Michael Kosta hosting, 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.

What happened on Colbert's Kimmel appearance? He shaved his beard on air over an Emmy bet, gave Kimmel his Captain America shield, and announced no new show. The full account is in our Stephen Colbert update.

Night-by-night versions of this run all week in the late-night section and the daytime section. Last week's board is still up at talk show guests for Sept. 8-11, and the most recent nightly pages are Thursday night's late-night rundown and Friday's daytime board. Everything we publish is filed under this week's lineups and the guide section.

Sources · Listings data via TVmaze · LateNighter — lineups by show · Interbridge — daily talk show lineups · CableTV — late night, Sept. 14-20 · TV Lineups — The View weekly schedule · TV Insider — Stewart's Daily Show return · TV Insider — Drew Barrymore Season 7 · TV Lineups — Drew Barrymore weekly schedule · Laughing Place — Live guest list, Sept. 14 · Television Academy — Outstanding Variety Series winner · NBC Insider — 78th Emmy Awards date and host

By the Talk Show On Air desk · Updated Sept. 18, 10:18 a.m. ET