A studio audience is an audience present for the recording of all or part of a television program or radio program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack (as opposed to canned laughter ).
134-432: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (often abridged as Last Week Tonight ) is an American late-night talk and satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver . The half-hour-long show premiered in the end of April 2014 on HBO and currently premieres simultaneously on the network and Max . Last Week Tonight shares some similarities with Comedy Central 's The Daily Show (where Oliver previously served as
268-460: A warm-up comedian who warms up the crowd before the recording starts and sometimes in between the commercials or between the scenes. The warm-up comedian usually will familiarize the audience members with the Applause signs which are facing the audience near monitor screens. Before the show, the audience is given some training on how and when to applaud and told to be loud and enthusiastic so that
402-406: A "brutal takedown" of televangelists and churches which preach "the prosperity gospel ," a message that dupes people into thinking that cash donations will solve medical or financial problems, while in fact the donations go to the personal aggrandizement of televangelists who buy expensive jets or large mansions. A week later, on the following episode, Oliver devoted a short segment to the donations
536-525: A 33-year career on late-night TV, and was succeeded the following September by Stephen Colbert—who departed from Comedy Central and The Colbert Report to host the program. On August 6, 2015, Jon Stewart also retired from The Daily Show (being succeeded by fellow cast member and South African comedian Trevor Noah ), joining The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as an executive producer and occasional contributor. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert achieved critical and ratings successes for its satire of
670-404: A British accent ... Exactly like The Daily Show , the goal is to make elected and appointed officials, as well as just about any corporate enterprise, look foolish and inept while slyly culling together television news clips that make the media look equally inept at covering such evident truths. James Poniewozik of Time similarly compared Last Week with The Daily Show , but also wrote that
804-457: 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
938-597: 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
1072-566: A certain thing in mind and that is how to see a story told badly." He said to another interviewer that he is concerned about dealing with old news: If something happens on a Monday, realistically all the meat is going to be picked off that bone by the time it gets to us – there's probably barely a point in doing it ... I think we'll be attracted to some extent by stories that are off the grid ... Our show may end up skewing more international in terms of stories. Tim Carvell , executive producer of Last Week Tonight , explained in an interview how
1206-574: A company he had created, called "Central Asset Recovery Professionals Inc." (CARP), which he described as being "for the bottom-feeding fish ". Oliver stated that it was "pretty clear by now [that] debt buying is a grimy business, and badly needs more oversight" and went to point out that starting such a business was "disturbingly easy." It cost him $ 50 to register the business in Mississippi, while it cost less than $ 60,000 to purchase almost $ 15 million in bad debt, medical debt from Texas. Oliver forgave
1340-410: A concept which had been pioneered by Jerry Fairbanks, and which had been used on The Silver Theater , Truth or Consequences and Amos ‘n’ Andy . This implementation allowed the show to benefit from the strengths of both stage plays (live audience) and film (camera angle options, point of view, etc.). This approach produced a marriage between cinema and theater; television and plays. This approach
1474-450: 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 1:00 a.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
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#17328026290421608-681: A confined studio setting. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , a large number of television programs were forced to conduct tapings without live audiences due to restrictions on gatherings. Some shows usually filmed in front of a studio audience used canned applause and laugh tracks instead, in some cases accompanied by stock footage of audiences from previous episodes filmed prior to pandemic restrictions. Some shows—particularly talk shows , game shows , and reality competitions —have adopted virtual audiences , whereby audience members appear from their homes via webcams and videoconferencing . While
1742-414: A correspondent and a fill-in host), as the show takes a satirical look at news, politics and current events, but on a weekly basis. Oliver's initial contract with HBO was for two years with an option for extension. In September 2020, HBO announced that the show had been renewed for three additional seasons of 30 episodes each, keeping the show on the air through 2023. The show's tenth season was impacted by
1876-458: 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. Early television variety shows included The Ed Sullivan Show (originally known as Toast of
2010-472: 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
2144-605: A legal entity. He did this partly as a way to demonstrate how "disturbingly easy" it is, in terms of paperwork, to set up a tax-exempt religious organization as viewed by the Internal Revenue Service . As Oliver explained, the requirements needed to be defined as a "church" are quite broad. Since regulatory guidelines require an established location for a church, Oliver chose his studio location in New York City as its official location, although he registered
2278-410: 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
2412-473: 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 1:35 a.m. came to an end after
2546-607: A new prime time talk show on NBC, The Jay Leno Show . It aired on weeknights at 10 p.m. ET/PT before late local news and The Tonight Show , and featured sketches and elements carried over from his tenure. The program faced dismal ratings, which also led to complaints from NBC affiliates that it was impacting the viewership of their late local newscasts. On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be moved to 11:35 p.m. and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien would be moved from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. effective March 1, 2010,
2680-612: A parody news show, so no people pretending to be journalists." In early March 2020, the show went on temporary hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show returned on March 29, 2020, being filmed in Oliver's home with no studio audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic , and produced largely by virtual communication. The show remained there until it resumed filming, in a new studio, in September 2021. While filming from his home, Oliver had
2814-451: A photo of a gun labelled " deus ex machina ", a picture of Vladimir Putin labelled " POTUS Operandi ", a photo of Oliver himself labelled " hostus mostus "). Each episode contains a small handful of shorter segments and then one main segment. While the short segments almost always relate to recent news, the episode's main segment usually covers in length and detail a political issue, even if that issue did not have news media attention during
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#17328026290422948-432: 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
3082-580: A prize, which is usually provided by a manufacturer in exchange for an advertisement, usually at the end of the show. Some game shows , such as Let's Make a Deal and The Price is Right , select contestants directly from the studio audience. For sitcom / sketch comedy shows like All in the Family , Saturday Night Live and Happy Days (for indoor scenes), the use of a live studio audiences essentially turns them into de facto stage productions while shooting individual scenes, with minor problems like
3216-469: A record for any piece of HBO content." Throughout the 2016 presidential election and following Trump's inauguration , Oliver made additional segments regarding Trump. "Debt Buyers" is a segment discussing the business and questionable practice of debt buyers . It aired on June 5, 2016, as part of the fourteenth episode of the third season. Oliver announced he had purchased nearly $ 15 million in medical debt that belonged to 9,000 debtors. He did this through
3350-554: 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
3484-410: 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. James Corden hosted his final episode of The Late Late Show on April 27, 2023, in a departure that
3618-462: A satire of opinion-based cable news programs, featuring Colbert portraying a narcissistic pundit reminiscent of Fox News hosts such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity , among other influences. 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
3752-461: A settlement with NBC that allowed him to leave The Tonight Show on January 22, 2010, ending his affiliation with NBC after 22 years. 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 . Leno's second Tonight iteration was taped at NBC's Studio 11 in Burbank, the former home of The Jay Leno Show , with
3886-755: 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. 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
4020-530: 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 1:35 a.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
4154-599: A total of 35 million homes, despite the network's concerns. 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. 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
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Misplaced Pages Continue
4288-516: A traditional studio-based format. 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
4422-552: 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
4556-466: 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
4690-424: A week – a staggered timeline that would rob the basic news-punning format of its intrinsic topical punch ... The first episode of his HBO series didn't stray far from the [Jon] Stewart mothership, stylistically ..." However, the reviewer, Darren Franich, liked that Oliver has "a half-hour of television that is simultaneously tighter and more ambitious, that the extra production time leads to sharper gags but also
4824-470: 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,
4958-504: 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
5092-528: 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
5226-624: Is a segment about the tobacco industry, which aired on February 15, 2015, as part of the second episode of the second season. During the eighteen-minute segment, Oliver discusses tobacco industry trends and practices. He also introduces Jeff the Diseased Lung, a mascot he created for the American global cigarette and tobacco company Philip Morris International , the makers of Marlboro brand of cigarettes. The anthropomorphic diseased lung, who smokes and coughs, has been compared to Joe Camel and
5360-689: Is citing it. He often coins hashtags related to his segment for use in social media, some of which go viral. A recurring element of the show is Oliver's use of mascots. The mascots used in the show include Jeff the Diseased Lung in a Cowboy Hat , Hoots the NSA Owl, Taryn the Tinder Chicken, and the Last Week Tonight puppets. Oliver told Vulture in February 2019 that "[Executive producer] Tim Carvell and I – I think we've always seen
5494-428: 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. Late-night talk shows are also fundamentally shaped by the personality of the host. The late-night talk show format
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Misplaced Pages Continue
5628-814: 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
5762-496: 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. 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
5896-408: The 2023 Writers Guild of America strike , with no shows airing from May through September, reducing the number of episodes for the season from the typical 30 down to 21. On December 5, 2023, HBO announced that the show had been renewed for three additional seasons, keeping the show on the air through 2026. The show's eleventh season premiered on February 18, 2024. Oliver described his preparations for
6030-781: The Foxtel channel FOX8 and the streaming service Binge and airs in New Zealand on SoHo . In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is broadcast on Mondays on Sky Comedy . In Belgium, it is broadcast on Thursdays by the Telenet cable-only channel PRIME Series . It airs in South Africa on M-Net and in Portugal on RTP3 . In India, the show is streamed on Disney+ Hotstar , before it was relocated to JioCinema . In Greece,
6164-552: The Marlboro Man . Oliver and his team promoted the cartoon character by sending shirts with Jeff's image to Togo and displaying billboards in Uruguay, and by encouraging use of the hashtag #JeffWeCan, which trended on Twitter following the broadcast. The segment received widespread media coverage, with several outlets praising Oliver's ability to launch successful marketing campaigns and change perceptions about smoking through
6298-497: 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
6432-579: The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes . CBS filled the Late Late Show timeslot with reruns and previously-unaired episodes of Comics Unleashed . The revival, titled After Midnight , premiered on January 16, 2024. 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
6566-410: The "full half-hour gives Oliver the room to do more," and praised Oliver's "sharper tone and his globalist, English-outsider perspective," as well as his "genuine passion over his subjects." Poniewozik wrote that Oliver's debut was "a funny, confident start." The Entertainment Weekly review began by ringing the same changes: "The fear with Last Week Tonight is that it's The Daily Show except once
6700-493: The Church would be shutting down during his show on September 13, 2015. All monetary donations have been forwarded to Doctors Without Borders. "Donald Trump" is a segment discussing American businessman Donald Trump. It aired on February 28, 2016, as part of the third episode of the third season. During the 22-minute segment, Oliver discusses Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and his long career in business. He also reveals that
6834-523: The New Orleans Public Defense office's crowdfunding efforts to improve their conditions were featured. In the days following the episode's broadcast, thousands of dollars were donated to the office by the show's fans, helping them reach their goal four days after the show aired. Oliver himself does not believe the effect to be real and has openly ridiculed the idea on the show, even calling the term "completely meaningless". "Tobacco"
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#17328026290426968-457: 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
7102-552: The Trump family name was changed at one point from the ancestral name 'Drumpf'. Although the changing of names was once a common practice among many non-English immigrants to the United States, the segment popularized the term "Donald Drumpf" and started a campaign urging viewers to "Make Donald Drumpf Again," a play on Trump's own campaign slogan, " Make America Great Again ." The segment garnered more than 85 million views on Facebook and YouTube combined which, an HBO spokesman has said, "is
7236-484: The ability to present more context" and thought that the debut had "plenty of funny throwaway lines." Franich appreciated Oliver's coverage of the 2014 Indian general election , which the American press was largely ignoring, and, like Poniewozik, praised Oliver's "passion." Franich concluded that Last Week Tonight "suggested the sharpest possible version of its inspiration" and that it "should feel like an experiment" but "felt almost fully formed." David Haglund of Slate
7370-437: The audience applauding or uproariously whooping (the latter since becoming a satirical cliché in shows which mock the format and tropes of traditional sitcoms) when their favorite performers enter the stage. Shows like The Red Green Show , meanwhile, actually make the audience a part of the show, since that show is supposedly a television broadcast made from the (fictional) Possum Lodge, cast members react and speak directly to
7504-432: The audience as if they were talking to the viewers at home. Most early radio shows in the United States were recorded in the presence of a studio audience, including comedies such as The Jack Benny Program , The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show , and Fibber McGee and Molly , as well as anthology series like The Mercury Theatre and Lux Radio Theatre . In its earliest days, most television broadcasts stemmed from
7638-491: The audience's reactions can be inspired by the show itself, they may also be cued to respond with applause or other reactions by illuminated signs. Modern applause signs might be simply a text that shows up in the monitors, which audience members see during the show. In the early television era, applause signs were made from cardboard and other materials which studio staff members showed to the audience to get desired reaction. Television tapings for sitcoms and talk shows have
7772-473: The background replaced with a textured bluish background. He eventually personified the background, calling it "The Void" and adding to the background cartoon eyes and a mouth. Oliver would occasionally interact with "The Void", with H. Jon Benjamin voicing "The Void". Oliver has stated that he has "full creative freedom, including free rein to criticize corporations", and frequently pokes fun at HBO 's (now former) parent company AT&T , referring to it as
7906-461: The cast and crew deal with a half hour of Oliver speaking without any commercial breaks. Structural considerations are leading to changes in the content in the show that will inherently make it different from The Daily Show ... We realized early on, you don't necessarily want to hear anybody talk to you for a half an hour straight – even John, who is very charming – so we are constructing these little, produced comedy elements that will serve
8040-459: The church had received, which included money from around the world. Oliver said he had received "thousands of envelopes with thousands of dollars" from donors. Displayed were several US Post Office containers full of mail. Oliver told viewers that the more money they sent in, the more "blessings" would be returned to them, adding that "that is still something I'm – amazingly – legally allowed to say." Oliver announced that
8174-491: The creation of the mascot. The mascot later made an appearance at a protest organized by the "Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids" in New York City in May 2015. Philip Morris International issued a response to the segment, stating that it included "many mischaracterizations" of the company. In August 2015, Oliver hired a professional tax lawyer for his "Televangelists" segment to set up a church called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption as
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#17328026290428308-413: The debt in its entirety, and claimed that it was the largest single giveaway in the American television history, eclipsing that of General Motors on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004 where it gifted cars to Winfrey's studio audience, worth an estimated $ 8 million in total. Writing for Slate , Jordan Weissmann disputed the $ 15 million figure: "[Oliver] says CARP paid around $ 60,000 ... for its paper, which
8442-476: 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
8576-434: 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
8710-462: The end of the year. On September 8, 2014, British actor and comedian James Corden was announced as the new host of The Late Late Show . 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). Meanwhile, in May 2015, David Letterman retired from Late Show, ending
8844-496: 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
8978-417: The exception of The Daily Show, which opted to continue without an audience as a stylistic choice) had full audiences return to their studio. 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. The program shifted to a home-based production for its second season in January 2021, with Singh citing both
9112-444: 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
9246-565: The first time in its history that the show would begin after midnight in the Eastern Time Zone. 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 11:35 p.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. After several days of negotiations, O'Brien reached
9380-432: The function of commercial breaks throughout the show, which will let us get out of the studio, get us away from John's voice and break the show up a bit. Carvell also revealed that HBO gave them freedom in choosing guests for the show, advising them not to feel obligated to feature celebrities. When asked by an interviewer about "correspondents" such as those featured on The Daily Show , Oliver replied, "we're not going to be
9514-487: The genre competed against general variety shows for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series . 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. 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
9648-518: The issue, such as Pepe Julian Onziema , Edward Snowden , the Dalai Lama , Anita Hill , Stephen Hawking , and Monica Lewinsky . Oliver traveled to Moscow to interview Snowden, and traveled to Dharamsala , India to interview the 14th Dalai Lama. While broadly within the categories of political satire and late-night talk shows , Last Week Tonight has taken a more specific approach to deeper dives into systemic issues which intend to illustrate both
9782-403: 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
9916-495: 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. O'Brien's final Late Night episode
10050-510: The main show is taking a week off. Across the TV airings, DVR , on-demand and HBO Go , Last Week Tonight averaged 4.1 million weekly viewers in its first season. Last Week Tonight has received widespread critical acclaim. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post named Oliver's program as 2014's best television show, writing "the year's most surprising contribution to television is a show that bucked conventional formats, left us buzzing and paved
10184-417: The mention of him, even in a satirical context, while those who are his fans would be offended). 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
10318-449: The nonprofit organization in the state of Texas. Oliver's "megachurch" had a toll-free phone number which allowed callers to donate to the church, and said that any money collected would be redistributed to the charitable relief organization Doctors Without Borders . Oliver announced the formation of his church on the episode of the show that aired on August 16, 2015. Matt Wilstein, writing for Mediaite , saw Oliver's stunt as being along
10452-435: The pandemic and a creative preference against a traditional studio-based format. Singh opted not to continue A Little Late beyond 2021, and NBC returned the time slot to its affiliates. 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. On January 17, 2023, it was announced that Craig Ferguson would make
10586-412: The people at home can hear them. Applause signs are currently being used on late night talk shows including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , Late Night with Seth Meyers as well as variety and sketch comedy shows like Saturday Night Live , The Daily Show among others . In some cases, a studio audience can be called upon to vote, to help a contestant(s) (such as with Who Wants to Be
10720-493: 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
10854-501: 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 . 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 . Snyder departed in 1999 and
10988-479: The preceding week. On occasion, the short segments are omitted and the main segment takes up the entirety of the episode. Some of the episodes will follow up the main segment with another video compilation or news story. Oliver's speech is broken up with video compilations of recent news clips, or recurring segments, into which Oliver segues by saying, "And now, this." Oliver has also ended some segments with mock trailers for fictional TV shows or commercials that satirize
11122-974: The program in 2013 due to his commitments to the Today Show and other projects. On September 16, 2019, NBC premiered A Little Late with Lilly Singh —a new talk show hosted by Indian-Canadian YouTuber Lilly Singh . She became the first openly bisexual person and the first person of Indian descent to host a U.S. late-night talk show. 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
11256-414: The proliferation of cable news, and ABC believing in stronger ratings potential in the timeslot, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was moved to 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on January 8, 2013—placing it in line with its competitors, Letterman and Leno. On October 17, 2005, Comedy Central premiered The Colbert Report , a spin-off of The Daily Show hosted by regular cast member Stephen Colbert . The show was structured as
11390-464: The proposal. It was thought that Oliver's segment had a major role in the FCC's ultimate reversal of stance on that proposal, with the FCC instead implementing net-neutrality rules that prohibited priority "lanes". A sequel in 2017 inspired over 150,000 comments on a subsequent proposal to scrap the new net neutrality rules. In a segment about public defenders and how some offices are extremely underfunded,
11524-424: The question of the religious exemption from taxation was more difficult and nuanced than Oliver portrayed, and not a simple matter of government regulation, describing Oliver's pivot to IRS policy as "unhelpful." However, Thorngate agreed that Oliver's exposure and criticism of "manipulative sleazeballs" who "fleece the faithful" is "spot-on". Leonardo Blair, writing for Christian Post , described Oliver's segment as
11658-494: 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
11792-516: The release to the YouTube channel by three additional days. Some extended clips are also available on the show's YouTube channel, as are "Web Exclusives" that are produced solely for the channel, such as a July 2016 video in which Oliver responded to negative comments left on the channel itself. On February 25, 2024 the show announced that it will be uploading full episodes of the show to its YouTube channel for free in countries and territories where
11926-479: The remaining shows: "maybe there'll be one." - DRC (Congo) Le #ChezfrancisKakondeshow on Antenne A Monday/Wednesday and Friday at 23h30 (20th season) since 2003–2023 Host: Francis Kakonde Studio audience In the United States , tickets to be a part of a studio audience are usually given away. However, as an enticement to attend, one or more members of the audience may be selected to win
12060-578: The royal institution " for calling Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn a "buffoon" and an "idiot." During the June 17, 2018, episode, Oliver spoke at length about Xi Jinping , General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party , in part criticizing his censorship of Chinese media , his dictatorship and consolidation of power. Both "John Oliver" and "Last Week Tonight" were blocked from Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo immediately following
12194-564: The run-up to the 2016 EU membership referendum . The show's production has also created content specifically for fan use. For the March 19, 2017, episode, which reported on Bolivia's growing coalition of workers clad in zebra suits to educate civilians about traffic laws, the show's production recorded 23 minutes of a person in a zebra costume dancing and gesticulating before a green screen so that viewers could edit it into other videos for humorous effect. A similar video called "Real Animals, Fake Paws" for use in reenacting U.S. Supreme Court cases
12328-605: The same lines as comedian Stephen Colbert 's setting up of a 501(c)(4) organization – Colbert Super PAC – as a way to "test the absurd limits of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision "; Oliver's megachurch, in contrast, is a way to test whether the IRS might view his "megachurch" as a tax-exempt organization. Steve Thorngate, writing in The Christian Century , suggested that
12462-452: The segment. The HBO website and content from the network were also blocked, although Last Week Tonight had already been excluded from HBO Asia . On several occasions, show segments on major societal issues, such as the "Chickens" or "Bail" segments, were soon followed by real-world change and action on said issues by the public, policymakers and/or other institutions. Several media outlets, noticing this pattern, suggested that attention from
12596-1262: The series' fourth season, some commentators Haaretz , indicated that show has become increasingly focused on then-president President Donald Trump, noting the "show had exhausted itself and its supply of jokes about the president", becoming repetitively focused on Trump's scandal-ridden presidency to a somewhat tiresome degree. A number of commentators from mainstream media outlets, including The New York Times , The Huffington Post , Time , and Associated Press , have described Oliver's style of reporting as journalism or even investigative journalism. Oliver himself disagrees, stating that "it's not journalism, it's comedy – it's comedy first, and it's comedy second." Last Week Tonight has received generally positive reviews and been nominated for numerous major awards, including 67 Primetime Emmy Awards (30 wins), 3 Peabody Awards (3 wins), 10 Producers Guild of America Awards (9 wins), 9 Writers Guild of America Awards (7 wins), 7 Directors Guild of America Awards (no wins), 7 Critics' Choice Television Awards (4 wins), 10 TCA Awards (4 wins), 11 Dorian Awards (3 wins), 5 GLAAD Media Awards (2 wins), and 4 Webby Awards (2 wins). Oliver has received 3 nominations for hosting (winning 1),
12730-400: 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
12864-403: The show airs on Cosmote TV 's Cosmote Series HD. Oliver often makes use of joke hashtags to facilitate the viral spread of his videos on Twitter and Facebook , as with the hashtag #NotMyChristian, which he used in 2014 to complain about the casting of actor Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey in the feature film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey . The hashtag became a recurring punchline on
12998-520: The show announced that they would be making the entirety of seasons 1 through 8 available on their YouTube channel in the United States, starting with season 1 the following Sunday and continuing with seasons 2 through 8 during the following weeks whenever the show was off. A YouTube video of a segment on the show supporting the UK remaining in the EU was found to be the single most shared video clip on Twitter during
13132-572: The show as our attempt to make The Muppet Show and failing to do so. But occasionally, just occasionally, you get the kind of Muppet Show adoration in the ludicrous mascots." The show frequently features one or more celebrity guests in its segments to help Oliver better get his point on the week's topic across. Guests have featured in many different capacities including giving monologues directly to camera, being interviewed by Oliver, playing musical numbers, participating in comedic skits with or without Oliver, or starring in fictitious parody PSAs . On
13266-423: The show does not have exclusive broadcast rights from local broadcasters. The upload is done a few hours after broadcast. The show has also uploaded past full episode archives from the previous ten seasons, also to the same aforementioned countries. These changes do not affect availability on Max, which retains episodes on their platform for a year after their original broadcast before being removed. On April 26, 2024,
13400-419: 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
13534-485: The show had instigated these changes, going so far as to dub the phenomenon the "John Oliver Effect". A June 2014 segment about net neutrality in the United States was thought to spur over 45,000 comments on the Federal Communications Commission 's electronic filing page about a net neutrality proposal that, if implemented, would have priority "lanes" for certain internet traffic. The FCC also received an extra 300,000 comments in an email inbox designated specifically for
13668-505: 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
13802-409: The show in an interview for The Wire : "... I basically have to watch everything. The only thing I kind of watch for pleasure is Fareed Zakaria's show on Sundays ... That and 60 Minutes I watch for pleasure, or maybe Frontline ... I have a TV on in my office all the time and I'll generally flick around on that from CNN , Fox , MSNBC , Bloomberg , CNBC , Al Jazeera ... I'm watching with
13936-450: 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
14070-425: The show's "business daddy". Unlike The Daily Show , which followed recent news, Oliver tends to explore one concept in depth. The show is taped in front of a studio audience , and HBO offers a limited number of free tickets to attend each week's Last Week Tonight taping. The show's theme starts off every episode containing images relating to the world at large with satirical captions written in dog Latin (e.g.,
14204-469: 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
14338-429: The show, guests are sometimes seen in the Last Week Tonight studio itself doing their part during the show's main taping, while at other times they are seen in video clips that were pre-recorded at a different location and later included in the show. Oliver has interviewed personalities who were directly involved in or impacted by the issues being discussed in the show to get their first-hand experiences and viewpoints on
14472-550: The show, mentioned in both serious stories and casual segues. Last Week Tonight has a YouTube channel where video segments of the show are added after the show has aired. Prior to Season 11 , the main segment from each episode was posted on Monday, the day following the original Sunday airings on HBO. Beginning with Season 11, the main segment has been uploaded on the Thursday following the original Sunday airing. Oliver has publicly expressed frustration with HBO's decision to delay
14606-420: The subject of his speech. Oliver injects humor into his presentation, including satirical analogies and allusions to popular culture and celebrities. The show includes a panel in the upper-left corner that frequently displays a photo or graphic that accompanies the subject at hand, as a comedic aid. A full-screen graphic will show and play a video clip (such as excerpts from news show or documentaries) when Oliver
14740-441: 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
14874-623: 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. 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. In 1973, NBC launched two new programs:
15008-470: 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
15142-475: 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. 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
15276-438: 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
15410-414: The way for a burgeoning dynasty. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is 2014's crowning achievement." Hank Stuever of The Washington Post compared Oliver's program with The Daily Show several times in his review of Oliver's debut: Another scathing, stick-it-to-'em critique of American mass media and politics shellacked in satire and delivered by a funny if almost off-puttingly incredulous man with
15544-456: The wider socio-political context and the complex interconnections and embeddedness of public policies in social outcomes. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver episode clips can be seen internationally on YouTube . It is broadcast on premium channel HBO Canada that is simulcast with HBO in the U.S.; around the same time it is shown on the international HBO channels. It airs in Australia on
15678-433: The world of New York theater. Stage veterans were experienced in performing for a crowd. Starting in the 1940s, these plays were broadcast live. Thus, these plays were now directed towards both the live audience and those watching from home. Premiering in 1951, I Love Lucy was the first television series to be filmed in front of an audience. This was made possible by the idea of Desi Arnaz to use multi-camera setup ,
15812-405: The writing team has received 10 consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series (winning 9), and the editors have received 14 nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming (winning 5). According to a document obtained by Vice , the military government of Thailand listed Oliver as " undermining
15946-409: Was 'out-of-statute' – meaning the debts were so old that creditors technically couldn't even sue over them anymore. That suggests the seller thought the debts were worth no more than, well, $ 60,000." The show partnered with RIP Medical Debt , Inc. to abolish the debt. Late-night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show , originating in the United States . It
16080-417: 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
16214-483: Was ambivalent, writing that the show is "obviously a work in progress" and that one segment "felt like misplaced overkill," but also that it is "good use of a weekly show, and it was funny to boot." Gawker 's Jordan Sargent claimed Last Week Tonight was "the new Daily Show ," while simultaneously criticizing the Daily Show for abandoning those "who have moved on from caring about Fox [News] and Republicans ." By
16348-652: Was announced that Fallon's former SNL castmate Seth Meyers would assume the duties of Late Night once Fallon moved to The Tonight Show . 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
16482-546: 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
16616-655: Was eventually chosen, leading to Letterman leaving the network to launch a direct competitor late-night talk show, the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS 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
16750-405: 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
16884-516: Was first announced a year prior. 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
17018-526: 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,
17152-470: 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
17286-439: 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
17420-811: Was released after the October 19, 2014, episode where dogs were used instead of justices to make listening to oral court cases more amusing to the general public and to increase interest in the subject. By April 2015, the channel had attained over a million subscribers. That number had risen to 3.6 million by July 2016, and over 5 million by May 2017. As of January 2023, the channel has over 9 million subscribers and more than 3.5 billion views. Oliver's debut show garnered 1.11 million viewers. The number of viewers online, through websites such as YouTube showing extended clips of different segments, have steadily climbed into multiple millions. The show's YouTube channel also features Web Exclusives which are occasionally posted when
17554-538: 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
17688-648: Was subsequently adopted by most U.S. network sitcoms until the 2000s, when one characteristic of that era's Golden Age of Television was a resurgence in single-camera setup sitcoms without studio audiences, although studio-audience sitcoms continued to be made. Although radio broadcasts for a studio audience have for the most part ended for commercial radio programs (outside of special "road show" episodes), public radio shows such as A Prairie Home Companion , Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! , Says You! , Tent Show Radio and Whad'Ya Know? are mainly performed in front of live audiences in theaters or art centers, if not
17822-439: 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
17956-483: Was taped on February 20, 2009. Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon took over as host of Late Night on March 2, 2009. The popularity of late-night shows in the United States has been cited as a key factor in Americans not getting a requisite seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Since 2015, late-night talk shows have competed for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Talk Series ; prior to then,
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