‘The Talk’ returns with new real life hosts, virtual AR elements

CBS’s daytime talk show “The Talk” returned for its 12th season Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, with an updated look and new augmented reality elements.

The show retained the logo it introduced earlier in 2021, but shifted the color scheme to blue and magenta, with violet added in to other parts of the on air look, including the on set LED and video walls.

The show’s open was updated with new co-hosts Jerry O’Connell and Akbar Gbajabiamila featured amid ribbons of blue and violet.

At the end of the open, the show’s entire team appears together in a portrait style photo that then “pulls back” to appear as an augmented reality element floating above the studio.

A standalone version of the show logo floats nearby as the camera jibs forward, zooming “past” the elements, which exit the viewport. 

The AR elements were designed by CGLA Studios and powered by Zero Density’s Reality platform with Unreal Engine providing rendering. Camera tracking comes from Mo-Sys

Additional augmented reality elements are also used for teases, using both the speech bubble outline from the logo as a “frame” around a sort of floating video panel and freestanding 3D text.

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“The Talk” is coming off a rough Season 11 that saw a racism scandal end in Sharon Osbourne, the only original member of the show’s panel, departing, along with Carrie Ann Inaba and Elaine Welteroth.

The show restocked with O’Connell, who hosted a test run of a talk show in the summer of 2019 and Gbajabiamila, who also hosts “American Ninja Warrior” on NBC.