Find the conflict in a story.
Conflict always makes for a great topic. Television talk shows thrive on conflict. Producers are always looking for topics that are based on the struggles between two parties.
Bad News
Some people call it sensationalism, but television talk shows love to exploit topics that have a negative slant. For instance, "the bad guy" who gets two women pregnant at the same time or "the bad mother" who leaves her children with an irresponsible teenager are both intriguing ideas. This makes for great television talk show topics!
Outrageous Topics
This is when your creative juices start to flow, the more outrageous a topic, the better. Things that are outrageous and extraordinary are always good topics to pitch to your producer. A lot of times, these types of topics are found in the newspaper. There may be a small blurb about a small town in the middle of nowhere, where the adults form organize extreme fight clubs.
Turn the usual into the unusual.
Here is a creative example of turning the usual into the unusual: When tall women who wear high heels aren't considered sexy.
The general idea is that we assume men think that high heels are sexy. So what if you turn the usual into the unusual and find a group of men who think tall women are not sexy if they wear heels and tower over men!
The Hometown Hero
The hometown hero is a classic topic for television talk shows. Ideally, the hero has been injured or risked his life to save a mother and her four children from a burning building. In television, the more drama that happened to the hero while saving the family, the better the story will be.