[2] With 1,504 episodes over 33 years under Buckley, Firing Line was the longest-running public affairs show with a single host in television history.

[5][6] Firing Line was mainly seen on weekends in low-rated afternoon or late-night time slots, because of the program's admitted appeal to a small, "middle-brow" demographic group.

In the fall of 1966, Firing Line began to appear on noncommercial educational television stations, mostly in areas where RKO General found it difficult to sell the program to a commercial outlet.

[11][12] Because the program received a relatively unfavorable Sunday evening timeslot on PBS' schedule in the early 1970s, Buckley and long-time director Warren Steibel briefly attempted to return Firing Line to commercial TV, but could not find sponsors.

[14] Although the program's format varied over the years, it typically featured Buckley interviewing, and exchanging views with, a guest, while seated together in front of a small studio audience.

[15] Reflecting Buckley's talents and preferences, the exchange of views was almost always polite, and the guests were given time to answer questions at length, giving the program a leisurely pace.

John Kenneth Galbraith said of the program, "Firing Line is one of the rare occasions when you have a chance to correct the errors of the man who's interrogating you.

Examiners varied, with Jeff Greenfield, Michael Kinsley, Harriet Pilpel, and Mark Green appearing most frequently.

A recurring episode that Buckley had rebroadcast every Christmas, beginning in 1981, was an interview he did with Malcolm Muggeridge at his home in Sussex, England.

[21] Buckley's voice was widely satirized, for instance by Robin Williams on Saturday Night Live and in the animated movie Aladdin.

[22] At the same time that guests were treated politely, Buckley might also gently mock them, particularly if he was friendly with them, as with John Kenneth Galbraith or examiner Mark Green.

[27] For the show's 15th anniversary in 1981, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Vernon Jordan, Henry Kissinger, and Louis Auchincloss presided over a party for Buckley at the New York Yacht Club.

[34][31] The first fourteen episodes of the program featured guests representing a variety of sociopolitical ideologies, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Ohio Governor John Kasich, journalist Gretchen Carlson, Senator Jeff Merkley, "the rising star of the political Left", Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,[35] and "accidental icon of the conservative movement", Jordan Peterson.

[38][39][40][41] The former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie was interviewed in which he referred to the crimes that Jared Kushner's father committed as "loathsome".

[47] Hoover has made multiple television appearances for the Firing Line reboot, including ones on Good Morning America, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Real Time with Bill Maher.