Skavlan
Skavlan was a Norwegian-Swedish television talk show hosted by Norwegian journalist Fredrik Skavlan. It premiered in Sweden on Sveriges Television in January 2009, and the first guests to appear on the show were former Prime Minister of Sweden Göran Persson and his wife Anitra Steen. On 8 May 2009, it was announced that Skavlan had been renewed for a second season. It was also announced that the show would no longer only be produced by SVT in Sweden; Skavlan would now be partly produced in Norway by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. The first twelve episodes of Skavlans second season were produced by SVT in Sweden, and the remaining twelve by NRK in Norway. It was then produced by Monkberry, who took over production duties from the 4th season, run by presenter Fredrik Skavlan and producer Marianne Torp-Kierulf.
The programme was filmed at TV-huset, SVT's studio complex in Stockholm, with episodes also filmed at Sky Studios in London, and Chelsea Studios in New York. London episodes were previously filmed at BBC Television Centre and ITV's London Studios.
History
Skavlan was one of Europe's largest and longest running talk shows, offering interviews with some of the world's best-known personalities. Airing during prime time on Friday evenings, Skavlan was produced by Monkberry for Norwegian NRK and Swedish SVT. The show had an audience market share of 50% in Norway and 40% in Sweden with 2.5 to 3 million viewers per show. The show also aired in Finland and had a large Internet following. To date, some of Fredrik's guests have included:- Adele
- Zara Larsson
- Bill Gates
- Nicole Kidman
- Rihanna
- Woody Allen
- Robbie Williams
- Uma Thurman
- Taylor Swift
- Bob Geldof
- Steven Van Zandt
- Isabella Rossellini
- Pamela Anderson
- Noel Gallagher
- Bill Clinton
- Emmylou Harris
- Robin Gibb
- Wyclef Jean
- Kofi Annan
- Cat Stevens
- Desmond Tutu
- Julio Iglesias
- Lars Ulrich
- Jeff Koons
- Paul Auster
- Jonathan Franzen
- Lena Olin
- PJ Harvey
- Tom Jones
- Eddie Izzard
- Malala Yousafzai
- Boris Becker
- Juliette Lewis
- Michael Palin
- Slash
- Amy Winehouse
- Florence and the Machine
- Liv Ullmann
- Susanne Sundfør
- Al Gore
- Mary L. Trump
- David Guetta
- Daniel Kahneman
- Leonard Cohen
- Richard Dawkins
- Joe Cocker
- Garry Kasparov
- The Killers
- Ronan Keating
- Jay-Z
- Dua Lipa
- Josh Groban
- Kylie Minogue
- John Irving
- Paulo Coelho
- Ben Kingsley
- Jon Bon Jovi
- Pelé
- Tove Lo
- Vince Vaughn
- Bruno Mars
- Lena Dunham
- Rosanne Cash
- Marianne Faithfull
- Joss Stone
- Natascha Kampusch
- Amos Oz
- Justin Bieber
- Dolph Lundgren
- Paul Krugman
- Sting
- Sarah, Duchess of York
- Elvis Costello
- Ellie Goulding
- Jamie Cullum
- John Mayer
- Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
- Mark Knopfler
- Will Smith
- James May
- Father John Misty
- Muhammad Yunus
- Sinéad O'Connor
- Bianca Jagger
- Isabel Allende
- Norah Jones
- Ken Follett
- Katie Melua
- Kat Von D
- Annie Lennox
- Mads Mikkelsen
- Malcolm Gladwell
- Jared Leto
- Emeli Sandé
- Andrea Bocelli
- Gordon Ramsay
- Bryan Ferry
- Mario Vargas Llosa
- Michael Bublé
- Steven Pinker
- Robert Plant
- David Walliams
- Shakira
- Kenneth Branagh
- Lorde
- John Legend
- Richard Ayoade
- Ian McEwan
- Tony Blair
- Helle Thorning-Schmidt
- Kevin Costner
- Juliette Binoche
- Matt Dillon
- John Cleese
- Paul McCartney
- Chrissie Hynde
- Alicia Keys
- Kathy Griffin
- Jimmie Åkesson
- Kygo
- Vegard Ylvisåker
- Bård Ylvisåker
- Tarjei Sandvik Moe
- Josefine Frida Pettersen
- PewDiePie
- Jan Böhmermann
- Alexander Rybak
- Benjamin Ingrosso
- Ann Coulter
- Jordan Peterson
- Annie Lööf
- Joan Baez
- Patti Smith
- Lewis Capaldi
- Greta Thunberg
- Ant Middleton
- David Blaine
- Armand Duplantis
- Anderson.Paak
- Dolly Parton
- Ricky Gervais
- Astrid S
- Stephen Fry
- Dave Grohl
Criticism
The show received criticism from leading intellectuals and some of their female guests, accusing Fredrik Skavlan of being sexist and asking impertinent questions and flirting with his female guests. Carolina Gynning told Swedish media that she found his questions "demeaning". Skavlan retaliated in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Expressen in which he said that the accusations were "absurd" and that he considered himself to be a feminist.Skavlan encountered some criticism from Norwegian viewers for his tough interview with former Icelandic prime minister Geir Haarde.