Skavlan is a Norwegian-Swedish televisiontalk 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 SwedenGöran 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 is now produced by Monkberry, who took over production duties from the 4th season, run by presenter Fredrik Skavlan and producer Marianne Torp-Kierulf. The programme is currently 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 is one of Europe's largest and longest running talk shows, offering interviews with some of the world's most well known personalities. Airing primetime on Friday evenings, Skavlan is produced by Monkberry for Norwegian NRK and Swedish SVT. The show has an audience market share of 50% in Norway and 40% in Sweden with 2.5 - 3 million viewers per show. The show also airs in Finland and has a large Internet following. To date, some of Fredrik's guests have included:
The show has 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 newspaperExpressen 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 ministerGeir Haarde.
