johnny carson was the original host of the tonight show.
johnny carson was the original host of the tonight show.
who was the original host of the tonight show?
johnny carson
two nbc programs were notably excluded from kyw-tv's schedule: "the tonight show", which was reformatted after original host steve allen's departure as the short-lived "tonight! america after dark", was dropped by channel 3 in june 1957 and replaced with a late-night movie following the 11:00 p.m. newscast. nbc revived "tonight" with jack paar as host in july of that year, but kyw-tv continued with its own programming, which also included the westinghouse-produced-and-syndicated (new) steve allen, regis philbin, and merv griffin programs. the paar-hosted "tonight show" would not be seen in cleveland until october 1957, when nbc agreed to terms with wews to carry the program. kyw-tv also did not carry nbc's early-evening newscast, "the huntley-brinkley report", for exactly one year comprising the 1959-1960 television season. like with the "tonight show", wews also ran this program. also during this period, wfmj-tv (channel 21) out of youngstown was the nearest full-time nbc station to cleveland. many were able to receive wfmj with a good antenna and uhf converter at that time.
wkyc
on july 1, 2010, "variety" reported that only six months into its second life, leno's "tonight show" posted its lowest ratings since 1992. by september 2010, leno's ratings in the adults 18-49 demographic had fallen below those of o'brien when he had hosted "the tonight show". nbc ratings specialist tom bierbaum commented that due to the host being out of late night television for a period of time and the subsequent 2010 "tonight show" conflict, leno's ratings fall was "not a surprise at all". in october 2010, david letterman beat leno's program in the ratings, for the first time since leno returned to hosting "the tonight show". by may 2011, leno's "tonight show" regained the lead and has held it since then. however, by august 2012, "the los angeles times" was reporting that "the tonight show" was in serious trouble for a number of reasons, most notably that nbc has been losing money. while leno offered to take a pay cut, at least 24 members of his staff were laid off. by march 2013, there were rumors that nbc would have jimmy fallon, who has been hosting "late night" since 2009 when he succeeded o'brien, become the next host of "the tonight show" when leno's current contract ends in 2014 and nbc would move the show back to new york for the first time in over 40 years. on may 13, 2013, during its fall "upfronts" presentation, nbc confirmed fallon would take over as host of the "tonight show" beginning on february 17, 2014; seth meyers, in turn, would leave "saturday night live" (where he was the anchor of "weekend update") and take over fallon's time slot.
the tonight show with jay leno