Montel Brian Anthony Williams is an American television host, actor and motivational speaker. He is known for hosting the daytime tabloid talk show The Montel Williams Show, which ran in syndication from 1991 to 2008. He currently hosts Military Makeover: Operation Career on Lifetime. Williams founded the Montel Williams MS Foundation after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. He is noted for his service in both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy, from which he retired after 22 years of service.

A tabloid talk show is a subgenre of the talk show genre that emphasizes controversial and sensationalistic topical subject matter. The subgenre originated in the United States and achieved peak viewership from the mid-1980s through the end of the 1990s. Airing mostly during the day and distributed mostly through television syndication, tabloid talk shows originated in the 1960s and early 1970s with series hosted by Joe Pyne, Les Crane, and Phil Donahue; the format was popularized by personal confession-filled The Oprah Winfrey Show, which debuted nationally in 1986. The format has since been emulated outside the United States, with the United Kingdom, Latin America and the Philippines all having popular shows that fit the format.