Leno opened the interview with "What the hell were you thinking?" and an embarrassed Grant squirmed through an apology.Jimmy Kimmel Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Jimmy Kimmel on the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live on August 22, 2016, in Los Angeles, California. A fluff interview suddenly became must see TV. ![]() The arrest made headlines just as Grant was embarking promotion for "Nine Months." It just so happened that Grant was booked as a guest on "Tonight" a couple weeks later, on July 10th. In June of 1995, actor Hugh Grant was caught with a sex worker on Sunset Boulevard. A lot of it was simply Leno learning how to run his own show, once telling a journalist that "The first six months was 'Tonight Show' by committee."īut his biggest victory - his coronation, even - would come in the summer of 1995. Some of it was NBC's strong primetime slate, where "Tonight" got promoted during a couple exciting new shows called " ER" and " Friends." Part of it was Leno firing Kushnick a few months into the program after her abrasive behavior finally caught up with her - she had destroyed staff morale, and word about her vicious habits leaked to the press. Slowly but surely, however, Leno began to catch up with Letterman. Even outside "Tonight," most guest hosts only appear when the host is unavailable for medical reasons, like when Harry Styles guest hosted "The Late Late Show" when James Corden's wife went into labor. During Leno's entire combined tenure at "Tonight," he only had one guest host - Katie Couric - and that was as part of a publicity stunt. Guest hosting has been increasingly rare in the years since Carson. Then from 1987 onward, Jay Leno moved into the permanent spot. After her acrimonious departure, the show started rotating again, usually bringing in names like David Brenner and Garry Shandling. First, from 1983 to 1986, fans would tune in on Mondays and see Joan Rivers hosting the show. Dozens of people, ranging from Joey Bishop to McLean Stevenson, had dozens of their own appearances behind the desk.Īfter Carson's contract gave him a lighter workload, he settled into two permanent guest hosts. Others would be one and dones, like Kermit the Frog - no, really. Some of them would stay for a whole week, like Harry Belafonte. The show was such a success that, over the years, it was known to sometimes generate up to 20% of NBC's revenue.ĭuring the '70s, he had a revolving door of them. ![]() His natural comedy instincts made him a hit, and the show was popular enough that merely appearing on it was a star-making endeavor. "Tonight" almost immediately reached new heights in the ratings, and Carson's monologues became the stuff of legend. NBC waited it out, and their judgement proved correct shortly after he started in October of 1962. ![]() The intimacy that implied seemed to underscore the need to find a star who was comfortable to the mass of viewers - and their mass prejudices."Ĭarson agreed, but he was contractually obligated to host his game show for 26 more weeks. But much of television comedy was still the province of ethnic comics, and this was a national show being sent into homes where a sizable portion of the audience was either already in bed or headed that way. "Nobody ever articulated why that mattered. In addition to his obvious talent and good looks, Bill Carter wrote about another important factor: Carson was a midwestern WASP.
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