Because it's a daytime show, "You have to be a little more sensitive," Hunt said. She recalled that her mother rarely had to turn the channel when young Bonnie was in the room during "Dinah Shore" or "Phil Donahue."

"I'm not going to talk about my sex life. I mean, we'd only maybe get half a show out of it," Hunt said.

That self-deprecating humor is part of what makes Hunt so endearing.

"I think Bonnie's completely relatable," said Hilary Estey McLoughlin, president of Telepictures, which produces the show. "We think she's like an every woman."

"That means fat," Hunt interjected.

She's certainly not fat, but she's totally relatable. Even in a room full of people interviewing her, Hunt can turn the situation into more of a conversation. And Hunt always seems interested in the guest.

"I do know, for me, as an audience member, one of the things I loved about certain interviewers is when they actually have a genuine interest in the guest," she said. "Whether it's about a movie they're promoting or if it's just a regular, everyday person who is coming on to talk about their own life, I find something compelling and interesting in almost anyone.

"I think that is just part of who I am. I think the most important thing is to be a good listener, because you can tell when somebody is not listening to you when you're a guest. And that's tough."

And she has no intention of making it tough on her guests.

"The first time I was on 'Johnny Carson,' I remember being so scared, but the minute he started talking to me, I felt a little more comfortable because I just knew he was going to take care of me," Hunt said. "Hopefully, I have learned something from watching him for so many years that I can offer that to a guest."

"I'm always amazed with how people open up with Bonnie," Lake said. "And I think it's because of all the characters she'd kind of played over her career."

"I think it's because I look like a cartoon," Hunt said.

Hunt would still fit right in the blue-collar Chicago neighborhood where she grew up in a big family without much money. And she's been making people laugh since she was a kid.

"I don't know if I realized that I was funny, but I realized how healing and important humor was in my childhood," she said. "Everybody knows when you're a struggling family, you don't really know it when you're a kid. But you do know the difference between stress and moments of relief where there's, like, this happiness."

She has clear memories of her late father watching Don Knotts on "The Andy Griffith Show."

"And for just that moment in time, I would see him forget all the pressure and all the problems (and) worries of the day and just really laugh. And I saw how valuable that was," she said.

And she used her sense of humor when she was a nurse working in an oncology ward.