Late-night talk shows often feature guest interviews. Barack Obama (left) is seen here being interviewed by David Letterman (right).
A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show, originating in the United States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is characterized by spontaneous conversation, and for an effect of immediacy and intimacy as if the host were speaking directly to each member of the watching audience.[1][2][3] Late-night talk shows are also fundamentally shaped by the personality of the host.[1]
The late-night talk show format was popularized by Johnny Carson and his sidekick Ed McMahon with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on NBC. Typically the show's host conducts interviews from behind a desk, while the guest is seated on a couch. Many late night talk shows feature a house band which generally performs cover songs for the studio audience during commercial breaks and occasionally will back up a guest artist.
Late-night talk shows are a widely-viewed format in the United States, but are not as prominent in other parts of the world. Shows that loosely resemble the format air in other countries, but generally air weekly as opposed to the nightly airings of those in the United States. They also generally air in time slots considered to be prime time in the United States.
Late-night talk shows had their genesis in early variety shows, a format that migrated to television from radio, where it had been the dominant form of light entertainment during most of the old-time radio era. The Pepsodent Show, which opened each weekly episode with host Bob Hope's rapid-fire, topical and often political observational comedy, was a particularly important predecessor to the late-night format.[4]
Early television variety shows included The Ed Sullivan Show (originally known as Toast of the Town), which aired on CBS Sunday nights from 1948 to 1971, and Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle, which aired on NBC from 1948 to 1956. These shows aired once a week in evening time slots that would come to be known as prime time.
The first show to air in a late-night timeslot itself, Broadway Open House, aired on NBC in 1950 and ended a year later after host Jerry Lester left the show, a combination of frustration with being upstaged by his sidekick Virginia "Dagmar" Lewis, burnout from having to go through a large amount of material in a short time, and the lack of enough television sets in the United States to make television broadcasting in late nights viable. (Lester himself was a last-minute replacement host for up-and-coming 26-year-old comic Don Hornsby, whom Hope had recommended to NBC but who caught polio and died less than a week before the show began.) For the next season, the only late-night program on the networks was NBC's Nightcap, a preview of the next day's programming hosted by Mary Kay Stearns.
The first late-night television talk show was The Faye Emerson Show, hosted by actress Faye Emerson. It began airing on CBS on October 24, 1949, in local East Coast markets before the network moved the 15-minute show, which regularly aired up to 11pm, nationwide in March 1950. In 1950, Emerson also hosted a similar show on NBC called Fifteen with Faye for about six months before committing the CBS show. Emerson's show was distinguished from her competition on NBC in that she was more openly political; Emerson, an avowed Democrat, regularly interviewed political and intellectual figures on her show (among them Soviet leader Joseph Stalin) in addition to a smattering of vaudeville and variety acts.[5]
The first version of The Tonight Show, Tonight Starring Steve Allen, debuted in 1954 on NBC. The show created many modern talk show staples including an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, comedy bits, and musical performances; it also had some holdovers from the radio era, including a vocal group (Steve and Eydie, who went on to decades of success after Tonight) in addition to the house band, something that later late-night shows would abandon. By this point, the Federal Communications Commission had lifted a freeze on new television stations, which allowed new stations to appear across the country, and television set sales soon grew exponentially. As a result, unlike Broadway Open House, Tonight proved to be a resounding success.
The success of the show led Allen to receive another show, entitled The Steve Allen Show, which would compete with The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights. Meanwhile, hosting duties of The Tonight Show were split between Allen and Ernie Kovacs; Kovacs had defected to NBC from his own late-night show on the then-crumbling DuMont Television Network. Both Allen and Kovacs departed from Tonight in 1957 in order to focus on Allen's Sunday night show. After the two left, the format changed to something similar to Today and was renamed Tonight! America After Dark, hosted first by Jack Lescoulie, and later by Al Collins, with interviews conducted by Hy Gardner, and a house band led by Lou Stein performing. The show was not popular, leading to many NBC affiliates dropping the show. The show returned to the original format that year and was renamed Tonight Starring Jack Paar.
The even greater success of the show during Paar's hosting resulted in many NBC affiliates deciding to clear the show. He was noted for his conversational style, relatively high-brow interview guests, feuds with other media personalities (his animosity toward print journalists Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell marked a power shift from print to television; Winchell's career never recovered from the damage), and mercurial personality. Paar quit the show in 1960 in a dispute over a censored joke, but was allowed to come back a month later. He permanently left the show in 1962, saying that he could not handle the workload of The Tonight Show (at the time, the show ran 105 minutes a day, five nights a week), and he moved to his own weekly prime-time show, which ran until 1965.
After Paar's departure, hosting duties were filled by Groucho Marx, Mort Sahl, and many others. Johnny Carson took over as host of The Tonight Show in 1962 and the show was renamed The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson streamlined the format of the show, focusing more on entertainment personalities, tweaking the monologue to feature shorter jokes, and emphasizing sketch comedy. Ed McMahon served as Carson's announcer, while from 1962 to 1966, the band was led by Skitch Henderson, who hired, among others, Doc Severinsen. When Henderson left, Milton DeLugg took over. Severinsen assumed the position in 1967 and served as bandleader with the NBC Orchestra. The show originated from NBC Studios in New York City but, as part of Carson's shifting the show toward a more entertainment-oriented program, moved to Burbank, California, in 1972.
NBC's two other rivals during the early television era, CBS and ABC, did not attempt any major forays into late-night television until the 1960s. ABC's first effort at the late-night TV race was hosted by Les Crane, which pioneered the controversial tabloid talk show format that would not become popular until two decades later. With most viewers not accustomed to the visceral conflict it entailed, Crane's show lasted only six months. Shorter still was The Las Vegas Show, a Las Vegas-based late-night show hosted by Bill Dana that was the only offering of the United Network that ever made it to air (because that network only had a handful of affiliates, it also syndicated the program to CBS, ABC and independent stations); it, along with the network, only lasted five weeks in summer 1967.
Steve Allen himself returned to NBC late night in syndication twice in this time frame, first with a show that ran from 1962 to 1964 and then with a series that ran from 1968 to 1971. ABC added the Joey Bishop Show, with Regis Philbin as his sidekick, to its late-night lineup in 1967, employing a talk show format, in an attempt to compete against the Tonight Show, which lasted until 1969. CBS went without late-night TV (the closest thing it would have to a late-night show was its late-prime-time variety show The Danny Kaye Show from 1963 to 1967) until 1969, when it acquired The Merv Griffin Show from syndication; Griffin returned to syndication in 1972, and CBS would not air any further late-night talk shows until 1989, instead opting for reruns, lifestyle programs and, later, imported Canadian dramas in the time slot. By the 1960s, NBC had already cornered the market for late-night television viewing and would dominate the ratings for several decades in the future.
1970s–1980s
Tomorrow (host Tom Snyder at right, interviewing John Lennon) followed a low-key interview format.
A number of restrictions on television networks that took effect in 1971, among them a nationwide prohibition on tobacco advertising, the requirement that a portion of prime time be set aside for local stations, and rules prohibiting networks from also acting as syndicators, prompted NBC to extend its broadcast day by an additional hour with programming it hoped would recuperate some of its lost revenue.[6] In 1973, NBC launched two new programs: a concert series, The Midnight Special, that aired Friday nights, and a low-cost talk show, The Tomorrow Show, hosted by Tom Snyder, that aired Mondays through Thursdays. Both shows aired immediately following Carson's Tonight Show at 1:00a.m. ET. Tomorrow was different from The Tonight Show. For instance, the show originally featured no studio audience, while Snyder would conduct one-on-one interviews (Snyder's guest list was often more eclectic and would sometimes include the intellectuals and cultural and artistic figures that Carson had long since abandoned) with a cigarette in hand. Carson's new contract in 1980 allowed him to cut the length of his show from 90 minutes to 60 minutes, and for a short time, Tomorrow was moved to an earlier timeslot, to fill the time gap left by Carson's move. NBC felt that Snyder's more conversational style would not bring in enough viewership in the earlier time slot, forcibly changed the show's format to resemble Carson's, and added gossip reporter Rona Barrett as a co-host. The two did not get along and had an acrimonious relationship on and off the air. The agreement gave Carson's production company ownership of the timeslot following Tonight, which, a year later, Carson Productions and NBC used to create Late Night with David Letterman. When NBC offered Snyder the time slot after Letterman, he refused it, having always been resentful of the forced change in format, and NBC News Overnight, a newscast, took the slot instead, some months after Tomorrow's final broadcast in 1982.
During his tenure as host of The Tonight Show, Carson became known as The King of Late Night. While numerous hosts (Merv Griffin and Dick Cavett being the best-known) attempted to compete with Carson, none was ever successful in drawing more viewers than Carson did on Tonight, not even ABC's short-lived revival of Paar's show in 1973 using the name Jack Paar Tonite (though Paar blamed erratic scheduling and his own unwillingness to succeed at the expense of Cavett, his friend and former writer). Much like Paar, Carson became tired of fulfilling the workload of 525 minutes a week, so The Tonight Show was shortened to 90 minutes and again to 60 minutes in 1980 with 15 weeks of vacation a year. Because of a lack of competition, Carson was free to take time off (by 1980, he was only hosting three new shows a week) and have guest hosts on the show on a weekly basis, and for weeks at a time when Carson was on vacation, including Joey Bishop (a former competitor of his), Joan Rivers, David Letterman, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, David Brenner and Jerry Lewis.
In his final years, Carson produced new shows only three nights a week with guest hosts and "Best of Carson" reruns the other two nights. From 1983 to 1986, Rivers and Brenner served as Carson's permanent guest hosts. Many in 1986, including top executives at NBC, thought it was possible that Johnny Carson would retire after reaching his 25th anniversary on October 1, 1987, as it was such a logical cut-off point. In the spring of 1986, a confidential memo, between top NBC executives listing about ten possible replacements in the event of Carson's retirement the next year, was leaked. When Rivers saw it, she was shocked to see that she was nowhere on the list despite the fact that she had been The Tonight Show's permanent guest host since 1983. In 1986, Joan Rivers joined the brand-new Fox network, where she would host her own late-night talk show, The Late Show, which competed directly against The Tonight Show. Clint Holmes served as Rivers' announcer while Mark Hudson served as band leader. Carson was incensed that Rivers did not consult him beforehand and never spoke to her again.
Brenner also left Tonight in 1986, although he did so amicably, to launch a syndicated 30-minute late-night talk show called Nightlife, which was canceled after one season.
Garry Shandling, who had been a frequent guest host in the early 1980s, served as permanent guest host, alternating with Jay Leno, from 1986 to 1987, when he left to focus on his cable show, leaving Leno to be Carson's sole guest host.
In June 1987, the very successful Late Night with David Letterman on NBC expanded from four to five nights per week, displacing the four-year-old Friday Night Videos to the timeslot following it. FNV, which had several subsequent format changes, ran until 2002.
Carson did not retire in 1987, instead continuing as host until 1992 with Leno as sole permanent guest host. Rivers was fired from The Late Show in 1987 after abysmal ratings and a battle with network executives, leading to her being replaced by Arsenio Hall. Hall performed extremely well among viewers in the 18–49 demographic; however, Fox had already greenlit The Wilton North Report to replace The Late Show, leading to Hall hosting his own late-night talk show in syndication after The Late Show was canceled in 1988. The Late Show continued with several unknown hosts until its cancellation. Hall's syndicated show, The Arsenio Hall Show, began in syndication in 1988, becoming more popular among younger viewers than Carson. The last network attempt at a Carson competitor, CBS's The Pat Sajak Show, lasted less than 16 months, debuting in 1989 and being canceled in 1990. ABC opted not to compete against Carson with a late-night talk show; in 1980, it produced a pilot of a Richard Dawson-hosted show called Bizarre (it instead went to series on Showtime with John Byner as host) and, for two years, carried the weekly sketch comedy series Fridays. ABC instead counterprogrammed Carson with a successful news magazine entitled Nightline, beginning in 1980.
Beginning on August 22, 1988, NBC concluded its main programming for the day with a half-hour entry, Later, hosted by NBC sportscaster Bob Costas and airing at 1:35a.m. Eastern, after Letterman, Mondays through Thursdays. It originated from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York and bore a strong resemblance to an earlier NBC late-night favorite, Tom Snyder's Tomorrow, due to its lack of the typical late-night trappings in favor of a low-key but intense concentration upon Costas interviewing a single guest. Costas hosted the program until 1994.
1992–2009
Carson retired as host of The Tonight Show in 1992 following his 30th anniversary as host. This garnered major media attention and speculation on who would replace Carson. The two candidates were David Letterman (host of Late Night since 1982) and Jay Leno (Carson's regular guest host since 1987). Leno was eventually chosen, leading to Letterman leaving the network for CBS to launch the direct competitor Late Show with David Letterman in 1993. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno debuted in 1992. Letterman was replaced by newcomer Conan O'Brien as host of Late Night. Arsenio Hall's show lost numerous affiliates after Letterman's debut and his show was canceled one year later. Fox returned to late-night television in September 1993 with The Chevy Chase Show. However, due to sagging ratings, disastrous reviews and Chase's embitterment at not being allowed to do the show according to his preferences, the show was canceled the following month. On NBC's Later, Bob Costas gave way to the host of the cable show Talk Soup,Greg Kinnear, whose tenure was accompanied by a move to Burbank and toward a more conventional, audience-and-celebrity-driven format. Kinnear parlayed that experience into a movie career and stayed only two years; he was succeeded by a plethora of fill-in hosts for the next four years. Even MTV entered the late-night contest when it debuted The Jon Stewart Show, hosted by Jon Stewart, which ran until 1995.
Letterman initially won the late-night ratings battle but fell behind Leno in 1995; Leno generally remained in first place until first leaving Tonight in 2009. To combat NBC's Late Night, CBS gave Letterman's studio Worldwide Pants control of the post-Late Show time slot, and would premiere The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder in 1995—serving as a spiritual successor to Snyder's Tomorrow.[7][8] They had originally attempted to lure Bob Costas away from NBC and Later (offering to have him host The Late Late Show and become a correspondent for CBS's newsmagazine 60 Minutes), but were unsuccessful due to his desire to stay with NBC Sports, as well as his relationship with NBC chief Dick Ebersol.[9] Snyder departed in 1999 and was succeeded by Craig Kilborn; at this time, The Late Late Show switched to a more conventional (albeit lower-budget) format in line with Late Show and its competitors. Kilborn had previously served as host of The Daily Show, a late-night satirical news program on Comedy Central, and upon Kilborn's departure, Jon Stewart replaced him on that program. Perhaps one of the most unusual late-night hosts to come out of this boom was basketball player and later entrepreneur Magic Johnson, whose syndicated The Magic Hour was a major flop and effectively ended any future efforts from anyone else at a syndicated late-night talk show at that point in time.
ABC finally re-entered the late-night first-run comedy fray, after an absence of 15 years, in 1997 by placing Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher (which had aired on Comedy Central from 1993 to 1996) into its lineup after Nightline. Unlike traditional late-night talk shows, Politically Incorrect was a half hour in length and (following a brief host monologue) featured a panel of four guests debating topical issues while Maher moderated in a comedic fashion.
With the new millennium in 2000, NBC's Later finally got another permanent host after various figures had taken the chair for several years, in the form of a VH1 personality, Cynthia Garrett, who broke the proverbial "glass ceiling" by becoming the first African-American female late-night host. Unfortunately, Garrett only lasted a year before NBC canceled the 12+1⁄2-year-old Later in favor of reruns of the critically acclaimed cult Canadian-produced sketch comedy series, SCTV, itself a former NBC late-night program that aired Fridays between 1981 and 1983. That action, a temporary measure, was necessitated by the prolonged development of, and negotiations with a host of, a slated replacement show (see below).
Many late-night talk shows went off the air in the days following the September 11 attacks of 2001, while their networks aired round-the-clock news coverage. Letterman was the first to return on September 17, addressing the situation in an opening monologue. The show was not presented in its normal jovial manner, and featured Dan Rather, Regis Philbin, and a musical performance from Tori Amos. Politically Incorrect also resumed on September 17 and immediately drew controversy due to remarks Maher and a guest (Dinesh D'Souza) made concerning the "coward" label given to the terrorists by President George W. Bush. The Tonight Show returned the following night, featuring John McCain and a performance from Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
After NBC's placeholding run of SCTV at 1:35a.m. came to an end after a year, the network debuted Last Call with Carson Daly in its place in January 2002; Daly was a former MTV VJ. Four months later, it expanded to five nights a week (from Later's four), and unlike the other shows on the air at the time, only a half-year's worth of first-run programs were recorded each season. In 2009, Last Call was retooled with a travelogue-like format, using interviews and performances filmed on-location rather than a traditional studio-based format.[10][11]
Politically Incorrect was canceled due to low ratings in the summer of 2002, after which Maher joined HBO and began hosting the similarly formatted weekly series Real Time. ABC then tapped Comedy Central personality Jimmy Kimmel to host a more traditional late-night program, Jimmy Kimmel Live!. From its beginning in 2003 until early 2013, the show aired following Nightline on ABC's late-night lineup. With Nightline past its prime in audience size due to the proliferation of cable news, and ABC believing in stronger ratings potential in the timeslot, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was moved to 11:35p.m. ET/PT on January 8, 2013—placing it in line with its competitors, Letterman and Leno.[12][13]
Jake Sasseville entered the late-night arena after a self-syndication campaign got him clearance on several ABC affiliates by local general managers in 2008. The Edge with Jake Sasseville aired after Jimmy Kimmel Live! in some markets, reaching a total of 35 million homes, despite the network's concerns.[16] The show went off the air in 2010. Another syndicated show that earned significant clearance in the late 2000s was Comics Unleashed, which was produced by Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios, and had still been cleared by some stations (such as WCBS-TV and other CBS owned-and-operated stations) as late as 2013 without any new episodes having been produced.[17]
Scottish native Craig Ferguson succeeded Kilborn as host of The Late Late Show in 2005, renaming it The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. TBS entered the late-night scene in 2009 when it debuted Lopez Tonight, hosted by comedian George Lopez. On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of The Tonight Show's debut, NBC announced that Jay Leno would be succeeded by Conan O'Brien, in 2009. Leno explained that he did not want to cause a repeat of the hard feelings and controversy that occurred when he was picked for the show over David Letterman following Carson's retirement in 1992.[18][19] O'Brien's final Late Night episode was taped on February 20, 2009. Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon took over as host of Late Night on March 2, 2009.
Jay Leno hosted his final episode of The Tonight Show on May 29, 2009, with his successor Conan O'Brien, and musician James Taylor as his guests.[21] O'Brien took over hosting duties on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien the following Monday, June 1, 2009.
In September 2009, Leno began hosting a new prime time talk show on NBC, The Jay Leno Show. It aired on weeknights at 10p.m. ET/PT before late local news and The Tonight Show, and featured sketches and elements carried over from his tenure.[22] The program faced dismal ratings, which also led to complaints from NBC affiliates that it was impacting the viewership of their late local newscasts.[23][24]
On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be moved to 11:35p.m. and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien would be moved from 11:35p.m. to 12:05a.m. effective March 1, 2010, the first time in its history that the show would begin after midnight in the Eastern Time Zone.[25][26][27] On January 12, 2010, O'Brien publicly announced in an open letter that he intended to leave NBC if it moved The Tonight Show to any timeslot after midnight in order to accommodate The Jay Leno Show at 11:35p.m. ET. He felt it would damage the show's legacy, as it had always started after the late local news since it began in 1954.[28]
After several days of negotiations, O'Brien reached a settlement with NBC that allowed him to leave The Tonight Show on January 22, 2010, ending his affiliation with NBC after 22 years.[29] Leno began his second tenure as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, after the 2010 Winter Olympics, but only after major controversy.[30] Leno's second Tonight iteration was taped at NBC's Studio 11 in Burbank, the former home of The Jay Leno Show, with a modified version of that show's set. After leaving NBC, O'Brien began hosting his new late night talk show, Conan, on TBS on November 8, 2010, after the non-compete clause in his NBC contract had lapsed.
In March 2013, news broke that NBC was expected to part ways with Leno for good after his contract expired in 2014, clearing the way for Fallon (whose tenure at Late Night had found success with a young, culturally savvy audience that was very desirable to advertisers) to take over The Tonight Show beginning that year, which also marked the 60th anniversary of the franchise. NBC confirmed the change on April 3, 2013. Under Fallon, the show returned to New York City, where the show originated from its 1954 debut until 1972; NBC no longer owns the former company-owned studios in Burbank where Carson and Leno's programs originated (O'Brien's Tonight Show taped at nearby Universal Studios). On May 13, 2013, it was announced that Fallon's former SNL castmate Seth Meyers would assume the duties of Late Night once Fallon moved to The Tonight Show.[31]The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon debuted during NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics in Russia on February 17, 2014, while Late Night with Seth Meyers debuted one week later.
2014 and 2015 saw a realignment to CBS's late night lineup: in April 2014, Craig Ferguson announced that he would leave The Late Late Show at the end of the year.[32] On September 8, 2014, British actor and comedian James Corden was announced as the new host of The Late Late Show.[33] His incarnation of the program was modelled more upon British chat shows such as The Graham Norton Show, de-emphasizing the monologue and relying on multiple guests present throughout the entire show (rather than interviewed individually).[34][35] Meanwhile, in May 2015, David Letterman retired from Late Show, ending a 33-year career on late-night TV,[36] and was succeeded the following September by Stephen Colbert—who departed from Comedy Central and The Colbert Report to host the program.[37] On August 6, 2015, Jon Stewart also retired from The Daily Show (being succeeded by fellow cast member and South African comedian Trevor Noah),[38] joining The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as an executive producer and occasional contributor.[39]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert achieved critical and ratings successes for its satire of the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign and the presidency of Donald Trump; following the 2018–19 television season, it was the highest-rated late-night talk show overall for the third season in a row, and narrowly beat The Tonight Show in key demographic (18-to-49-year-old) viewership for the first time since 1994–95.[40]
On February 12, 2019, NBC announced that Last Call with Carson Daly would conclude after its 2000th and final episode. Daly had already reduced his role on the program in 2013 due to his commitments to the Today Show and other projects.[10][11] On September 16, 2019, NBC premiered A Little Late with Lilly Singh—a new talk show hosted by Indian-Canadian YouTuberLilly Singh. She became the first openly bisexual person and the first person of Indian descent to host a U.S. late-night talk show.[41][42]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all U.S. late-night talk shows were forced to impose major changes to their formats in March 2020 due to public health orders and restrictions on gatherings. They initially adopted formats produced remotely from their hosts' homes, with all guests appearing via videoconferencing. By July 2020, late-night shows began to migrate back to studio-based productions, but with reconfigured or different studios than normal with no audience, and continued use of remote interviews. By October 2021, all late night TV shows (with the exception of The Daily Show, which opted to continue without an audience as a stylistic choice) had full audiences return to their studio.[43]
One of the few programs initially unaffected by COVID-19 restrictions was A Little Late, as it had already filmed the entirety of its first season in 2019.[44][45][46] The program shifted to a home-based production for its second season in January 2021, with Singh citing both the pandemic and a creative preference against a traditional studio-based format.[47] Singh opted not to continue A Little Late beyond 2021, and NBC returned the time slot to its affiliates.[48]Conan concluded its run on June 24, 2021, with O'Brien having announced plans to produce a weekly "variety" show for HBO Max and focus on other digital media projects.[49][50]
On January 17, 2023, it was announced that Craig Ferguson would make a return to late-night television with a new syndicated program from Sony Pictures Television, Channel Surf with Craig Ferguson; as opposed to The Late Late Show and other late-night shows, the program was pitched as having a specific focus on television as a topic, and air in a half-hour timeslot.[51]
James Corden hosted his final episode of The Late Late Show on April 27, 2023,[52] in a departure that was first announced a year prior.[53] It was reported that CBS was reconsidering the future of the Late Late Show franchise in favor of lower-cost formats; in November 2023, the network officially announced that it would premiere a Taylor Tomlinson-hosted revival of @midnight—a comedy panel show previously aired by corporate sibling Comedy Central from 2013 through 2017—as a replacement in 2024. Its development and premiere had been delayed due to the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes.[54][55] CBS filled the Late Late Show timeslot with reruns and previously-unaired episodes of Comics Unleashed.[56][57] The revival, titled After Midnight, premiered on January 16, 2024.[58]
Late-night talk show viewership had a brief peak in 2016 in the wake of retirements and new hosts but has been in steep decline since then. Conan O'Brien, in a 2023 interview, noted that several factors played into the decline, all of which impacted his decision to end Conan and focus on other projects, including a saturated market, the loss of the captive audience to video on demand options, and a changing culture that made it more difficult to make genuine fun of the culture (O'Brien, who tended to rely less on political humor than some of his contemporaries, cited Donald Trump as an example of a figure so polarizing that even those who do not like him would be repulsed by the mention of him, even in a satirical context, while those who are his fans would be offended).[59] In a 2024 podcast, Jimmy Kimmel admitted that he only agreed to continue Jimmy Kimmel Live! because he feared he had no career options if the show were to end, also noting that he anticipated that within the next ten years, the networks would decide that the format was no longer cost-effective and cancel all of the remaining shows: "maybe there'll be one."[60]
Vano's Show (ვანოს შოუ) (Rustavi 2; 2007–2019, Mtavari Arkhi; 2019-present) is a Georgian version of the American TV program format that has existed since the 1950s and is extremely successful in the United States.
Late Show With Giorgi Gabunia (ღამის შოუ გიორგი გაბუნიასთან ერთად) (Imedi TV; 2018–present)
Night Show on First Channel (ღამის შოუ პირველზე) (First Channel; 2019–present)
David Michael Letterman is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late-night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC and ending with the May 20, 2015, broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and Late Show, surpassing his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history.
James Douglas Muir Leno is an American television host, comedian, and writer. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's The Tonight Show from 1992 until 2009 when Conan O'Brien took over as host. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET, also on NBC. O'Brien turned down NBC's offer to have Leno host a half hour monologue show before The Tonight Show to boost ratings amid reported viewership diminishing, which sparked the 2010 Tonight Show conflict that resulted in Leno's returning to hosting the show on March 1, 2010. He hosted his last episode of his second tenure on February 6, 2014. That year, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. From 2014 to 2022, he hosted Jay Leno's Garage, and from 2021 to 2023, hosted the revival of You Bet Your Life.
Late Night with David Letterman is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the first installment of the Late Night. Hosted by David Letterman, it aired from February1, 1982 to June 25, 1993, and was replaced by Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Late Show with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the Late Show franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, and CBS Television Studios. The show's music director and leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, was Paul Shaffer. The head writer was Matt Roberts and the announcer was originally Bill Wendell, then Alan Kalter. In most U.S. markets the show aired from 11:35 p.m. to 12:37 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, and recorded Monday to Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m., and Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The second Thursday episode usually aired on Friday of that week.
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has been broadcast on NBC since 1954. The program has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien (2009–2010), and Jimmy Fallon (2014–present). Besides the main hosts, a number of regular "guest hosts" have been used, notably Ernie Kovacs, who hosted two nights per week during 1956–1957, and a number of guests used by Carson, who curtailed his own hosting duties back to three nights per week by the 1980s. Among Carson's regular guest hosts were Joey Bishop, McLean Stevenson, David Letterman, David Brenner, Joan Rivers, and Jay Leno, although the practice has been mostly abandoned since hosts currently prefer reruns to showcasing potential rivals.
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the second installment of the Late Night. Hosted by Conan O'Brien, it aired from September 13, 1993 to February 20, 2009, replacing Late Night with David Letterman and was replaced by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am Eastern/11:37 pm Central and 12:37 am Mountain in the United States. From 1993 until 2000, Andy Richter served as O'Brien's sidekick; following his departure, O'Brien was the show's sole featured performer. The show's house musical act was The Max Weinberg 7 and led by E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg.
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the fourth and sixth installment of The Tonight Show. Hosted by Jay Leno, it aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, replacing The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and was replaced by The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. The show returned from March 1, 2010 to February 6, 2014, replacing The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and was replaced by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late-night television series that was broadcast by NBC from 2002 to 2019. Hosted by former MTV personality Carson Daly, the series was initially formatted as a late-night talk show in line with The Tonight Show and Late Night. In 2009, Last Call abandoned its studio-based format, and was retooled as an entertainment program featuring interviews and performances filmed on-location with Daly.
Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or season-long schedule.
Late night television is the general term for television programs produced for broadcast during the late evening and overnight hours—most commonly shown after, if not in competition with, local late-evening newscasts; programs that have been showcased in the daypart historically encompassed a particular genre of programming that falls somewhere between a variety show and a talk show. Late-night shows predominantly cater to night owls, people suffering from insomnia, shift workers with irregular schedule assignments, younger male audiences and college students, along with spillover audiences through viewers of entertainment and news programs aired earlier in the evening.
The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night is a 1994 non-fiction book written by The New York Times media reporter Bill Carter. It chronicles the early 1990s conflict surrounding the American late-night talk show The Tonight Show. The book was later made into a film of the same name by HBO.
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows, beginning with Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–2009) and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009–2010) on the NBC television network, and Conan (2010–2021) on the cable channel TBS. Before his hosting career, O'Brien was a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1991, and the Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1991 to 1993. He has also been host of the podcast series Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend since 2018 and starred in the 2024 travel show Conan O'Brien Must Go on Max.
The Jay Leno Show is an American prime time talk show hosted by Jay Leno that was broadcast by NBC from September 14, 2009 to February 9, 2010. The series was a spiritual successor to his previous late-night talk show The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and used a similar format consisting of a comedic monologue, followed by celebrity interviews and other comedy segments.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the fifth installment of The Tonight Show. Hosted by Conan O'Brien. It aired from June 1, 2009, to January 22, 2010, replacing The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and was replaced by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon was an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of the Late Night franchise. Hosted by Jimmy Fallon, it aired from March 2, 2009 to February 7, 2014, replacing Late Night with Conan O'Brien and was in turn replaced by Late Night with Seth Meyers. The show aired weeknights at 12:35 am Eastern/11:35 pm Central, on NBC.
Late Night is an American late-night talk and variety show airing on NBC since 1982. Four men have hosted Late Night: David Letterman (1982–1993), Conan O'Brien (1993–2009), Jimmy Fallon (2009–2014), and Seth Meyers (2014–present). Each iteration of the show was built around its host, and maintained distinct identities aside from the title, time slot, and network. The longest-serving host to date was O'Brien, who hosted Late Night with Conan O'Brien for almost 16 years, from September 1993 to February 2009.
The 2010 Tonight Show conflict was a media and public relations conflict involving the American television network NBC and two of its late-night talk show hosts, Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno, over the timeslot and hosting duties of the long-running franchise The Tonight Show.
The Late Shift is a 1996 American made-for-television biographical film directed by Betty Thomas, and written by New York Times media reporter Bill Carter and George Armitage. Released by HBO Pictures and produced in conjunction with Northern Lights Entertainment, the film premiered on HBO on February 24, 1996.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is an American late-night talk show hosted by actor and comedian Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It is the seventh incarnation of NBC's long-running Tonight Show franchise, with Fallon serving as the sixth host. The show also stars sidekick and announcer Steve Higgins and house band The Roots. The Tonight Show is produced by Katie Hockmeyer and executive-produced by Lorne Michaels. It streams the following day on Peacock. The show records from Studio 6B in Rockefeller Center, New York City, which is the same studio in which Tonight Starring Jack Paar and then The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson were produced from 1957 until 1972.
↑ Diffin, Elizabeth; Lane, Megan (January 22, 2010). "Why do Americans care about late night TV?". BBC News. This diet of TV late at night is a key reason up to 40% of Americans get less than the 'recommended' seven to eight hours of sleep, according to recent research from the University of Pennsylvania.
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