Jô Soares (1938- )
Jô was nothing less than the leading TV talk show host in Brazil. He held forth in a good-sized studio with an audience of several thousand. It was a nighttime show, like its American counterparts. It came on at eleven, thus it was called “Onze Horas.”
Jô was shortish and quite rotund. Like Johnny Carson (I once called him “the Johnny Carson of Brazil,” he was quite puffed). That was the first time he called me out of the audience to join him on stage. His spies had spotted me.
The first question he asked me was, “How much is your salary?” I knew that was a trap for a gringo professor, so I replied “Less than yours.” That slowed him down and he decided I was up for repartee. He was incredibly witty and we had a good chat.
He had been educated in Switzerland and so was impressively multilingual. I was quick-witted enough to ask his producer to give me a tape of the interview. I took it back to the States should any of my posterity wish to exhibit it.
The last time I was with Jô was at a dinner party given by the publisher of Veja, Brazil’s leading newsweekly. The hostess, his then wife, was a distinguished woman writer. Shortly afterward I learned that they had divorced. (I should correct myself. Divorce was not legal in Brazil at that time. The Catholic bishops had successfully fought its adoption. It was legalized after the end of military rule. Only then could the many errant spouses settle in comfortably with their new loves.)
My interviews with Jô had a good effect back on the U.S. homefront. They were seen by the mother of my Brown University department colleague, Luiz Valente. She wrote him that she had seen “aquilo moço simpatico” on the TV.
Further Readings
Porto, Mauro P. Media Power and Democratization in Brazil: TV Globo and the Dilemmas of Political Accountability. New York: Routledge, 2012.
Soares, Jô. O xangô de Baker Street: Romance. São Paulo, Brazil: Companhia das Letras, 1995.
Soares, Jô, and Clifford E. Landers. A Samba for Sherlock. New York: Pantheon, 1997.
Jô Soares was born in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In 1958, he worked as a writer, actor, and comedian for TV Rio. Soares hosted his own talk show, Jô Soares onze e meia, at SBT from 1988 to 1999. A year later, he created a new show, Programa do Jô, at Rede Globo, which remains on the air today.