Shore returned to the radio (and Cantor) with success, and scored other big song hits including "Dear Hearts and Gentle People". The medium in which she was to become best known, however, soon beckoned, and in 1951 Shore starred in a 15-minute musical program on TV. After she won high ratings and Emmys several years in a row, the now-blonde Shore found herself in the one-hour "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show", bringing her relaxed charm, honey-dipped vocals and gently self-mocking humor to an immensely successful, award-winning run from 1956 to 1963.
Shore was less in the public eye during much of the 60s as she raised a family, but she made semi-regular specials, played live, and still remained in Gallup polls listing America's most admired women. In 1970, displaying an unashamedly middle-aged brand of American chic, she jumped on the burgeoning bandwagon of talk shows with "Dinah's Place" (NBC, 1970-74). Following up with "Dinah!" (syndicated, 1974-79), "Dinah and Friends" (syndicated, 1979-84), and the later "A Conversation with Dinah" (Nashville Network, 1989-91) made Shore one of the most popular personalities on daytime TV, one who in many ways pioneered the ground now occupied by Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael and other solicitous, easy-to-take discussion hosts. Divorced from actor George Montgomery and tennis player Maurice F. Smith, Shore garnered a lot of unwanted attention during her six-year affair with actor Burt Reynolds, not only because he was becoming Hollywood's biggest box-office name but also because she was nearly 20 years his senior. Shore, however, seemed unfazed by it all, as she began sponsoring an annual golf tournament, writing a series of best-selling cookbooks, and continuing to please her huge TV following with her unpretentious Dixie charm, invariably remembering to blow her trademark kiss to her audience at the end of a show.