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Thursday night Stephen Colbert ended CBS’ Late Show 33 years after David Letterman first made that network viable in the 11:30 time slot. The overnights said 6.7M tuned in, or about the totality of what he, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon drew on any given night.
It is, of course, nowhere near Johnny Carson’s swan song. On that May night in 1992, Carson drew close to 50M. But truth be told, before he announced his departure, Carson was doing close to today’s trio combined numbers. CBS had failed badly on almost every attempt (Pat Sajak, anyone?) and ABC filled the slot with Ted Koppel and Nightline, a more than worthy competitor when the news cycle was hot, but otherwise no match at all. For a couple of years, Arsenio Hall posted respectable numbers in syndication but he, too, eventually had to call it a day.
Carson’s show survives as a FAST channel on at least eight streaming platforms such as Roku, Tubi and Pluto. The topical joke monologues fall flat to all but the most seasoned ears and history buffs, but the interviews hold up. And maybe as the boomers wane, a more reasonable and less nostalgic critique of those Tonight Shows will emerge.
Carson reigned supreme in a time of very little choice. Since TVs had an incredible shelf life back then, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the majority of Americans had access to UHF signals and then cable.
And the quality of the guests was better. Stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age told stories no one had ever heard before. Today no one brings much new, and we already know way too much. To quote P. J. O’Rourke, "If you say a modern celebrity is an adulterer, a pervert and a drug addict, all it means is that you've read his autobiography."
Linear broadcast may eventually pass altogether. CBS also pulled the plug on its radio news division this week. The interwebs have changed everything, and it’s not Johnny’s world anymore.
Discussion (23)
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Howard Hughes backed Bill Dana's syndicated show out of Las Vegas. Pat Sajak's a good man, but his show didn't last--not entirely his fault. Joey Bishop was another ABC sacrificial lamb to the Carson slaughter.
The only one of the classic era, pre-Arsenio hosts that made at least a small impact (to me, anyway) was Dick Cavett. He was polite, well prepared and quick witted, but he could also be smug and smarmy. In the early Seventies he was about as close to, say, Jon Stewart as that era got; the intellectual liberal semi-comic posing as a cultural hero. For all of that, he was a definite cut above most of today's knee-jerk "clapter" merchants.
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It's hard for today's world to imagine how busy and bustling big cities were in the pre-modern street crime era, when NBC could fill 11:30 Tonight Show audiences (which, don't forget, went out live for years after it went on the air in 1954) by bribing tourist bus operators to include it in the late night bus tour of Manhattan.
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For many years, David Letterman brought original comedy that I would stay up late to watch. The simplicity of Stupid Pet Tricks, Throwing Things from a Tall Building, and Top Ten Lists were glorious.
Conan O'Brien brought a truly unique comic presence as did Craig Ferguson. But the current crop is indistinguishable from one another and they just aren't funny.
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I've got an antennae and watch Carson Friday nights. Still entertaining 40 50 years later. It was an 1 1/2 hours and He plug products. You know it was huge when it to 1 hour and He was no longer plugging products.
I remember Bob Dole on Letterman: "I don't have a top ten, David. When I'm elected president We're cutting everything by 30%. I've got a top seven list."
The list was how to pay the deficient (He was running against Clinton, if Y'all remember):
"And the number one way to pay off the federal budget deficient? Arkansas? Sell it!"
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When I was in college (and even high school), my self-imposed curfew was to be home by 11:30 to watch Carson. I usually watched the first half hour, which was the monologue, a skit or 2, and some dialogue with Ed McMahon before the first guest came out. If I was interested in the guest, I'd stay up later.
Johnny Carson . . . they don't make 'em like they used to . . .
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