--- title: Harry Connick Jr. Talk Show: Going Off Script for Harry description: Harry Connick Jr.'s new talk show, Harry, premiered Monday morning, with Sandra Bullock kicking things off by appearing as the first guest. canonical: https://time.com/4487547/harry-connick-jr-talk-show-harry/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-12T16:12:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:26.179Z og:title: Harry Connick Jr. Is Going Off Script for His New Daytime Talk Show og:description: "I want to have it completely unstructured" og:url: https://time.com/4487547/harry-connick-jr-talk-show-harry/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64c095b3d27923a/6988a583cf40a81aabc44c2a/harry-connick-jr.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Watch What Happens Live - Season 13 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harry Connick Jr. Is Going Off Script for His New Daytime Talk Show twitter:description: "I want to have it completely unstructured" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64c095b3d27923a/6988a583cf40a81aabc44c2a/harry-connick-jr.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Harry Connick Jr. Is Going Off Script for His New Talk Show _Harry_ > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=71579fc0-72c7-4f10-aca6-a947aa1d533e&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 12, 2016 4:12 PM UTC  Harry Connick, Jr. on Watch What Happens Live Harry Connick, Jr. on Watch What Happens Live Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 12, 2016 4:12 PM UTC [Harry Connick Jr.’s](http://entertainment.time.com/2010/08/03/top-10-overplayed-wedding-songs/slide/it-had-to-be-you-by-harry-connick-jr/) new [talk show](http://time.com/4299294/michael-strahan-good-morning-america/), _Harry_, premiered Monday morning, with Academy Award winner [Sandra Bullock](http://time.com/4082059/sandra-bullock-our-brand-is-crisis-sexism/) kicking things off by appearing as the first guest. The _Will & Grace_ alum hopes to breathe new life into the world of daytime television with his syndicated variety series — a note he frequently touched on during a recent interview with [_The Los Angeles Times_](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-harry-connick-is-ready-to-talk-20160802-snap-story.html). Connick spoke about how he believes his improv background will give him a leg up in his new hosting gig. “Even if a light breaks on set, there’s a segment there,” he told _The LA Times_. “The main thing is explaining to the technical side of the crew \[to be\] ready for me to walk across the street to Starbucks in real time. I couldn’t do it any other way. The risk-reward ratio is higher because you never know what you’re going to get.” The Grammy winner also dished on how several of the show’s segments will be completely unscripted. “When we went to NBC Universal, I said, ‘I want to have it completely unstructured,'” he revealed. “There’s a segment that we do called ‘I Got This’….I said I want to show up at somebody’s place of business or their house. I don’t want to know anything about ‘em, but y’all got to find me somebody that may be working two jobs or is a single mom, somebody that’s struggling…I show up and say, ‘What do you do?’ So I say, ‘Look, I’m going to take care of everything you do and we’re going to send you off to a spa or something and just give you a little bit of a break.’ And we’ve already shot 10 of them on the road.” Read more at [LATimes.com](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-harry-connick-is-ready-to-talk-20160802-snap-story.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4487547/harry-connick-jr-talk-show-harry/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4487547/harry-connick-jr-talk-show-harry/"},"headline":"Harry Connick Jr. Is Going Off Script for His New Talk Show Harry","datePublished":"2016-09-12T16:12:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:26.179Z","description":"\"I want to have it completely unstructured\"","url":"https://time.com/4487547/harry-connick-jr-talk-show-harry/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64c095b3d27923a/6988a583cf40a81aabc44c2a/harry-connick-jr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64c095b3d27923a/6988a583cf40a81aabc44c2a/harry-connick-jr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Watch What Happens Live - Season 13","caption":"Harry Connick, Jr. on Watch What Happens Live","creditText":"Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4487547/harry-connick-jr-talk-show-harry/","name":"Harry Connick Jr. Is Going Off Script for His New Talk Show Harry"}}]}] ```