| The Tonight Show | |
|---|---|
 The title card forThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the current incarnation of the show | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | |
| Presented by | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes |
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| Production | |
| Running time | Varies |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | NBC CNBC |
| Release | September 27, 1954 (1954-09-27) – present |
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The Tonight Show is an Americanlate-night talk show that has been broadcast onNBC since 1954. The program has been hosted by six comedians:Steve Allen (1954–1957),Jack Paar (1957–1962),Johnny Carson (1962–1992),Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 2010–2014),Conan O'Brien (2009–2010), andJimmy Fallon (since 2014).
Besides the main hosts, a number of regular "guest hosts" have been used, notablyErnie 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 wereJoey Bishop,McLean Stevenson,David Letterman,David Brenner andJoan Rivers, with his final regular guest host being his eventual successor Jay Leno. The practice of hiring guest hosts has been mostly discontinued by Leno and his successors, who prefer airing reruns to showcasing potential rivals.
The Tonight Show is theworld's longest-running talk show and the longest-running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States. It is the third-longest-running show on NBC, after the news-and-talk showsToday andMeet the Press. The current incarnation is taped from Studio 6B atNBC Studios inRockefeller Center in New York, the same studio used during the later Jack Paar era and the first 10 years of Carson. During its initial run under Steve Allen, it originated from theHudson Theatre on Broadway. From 1973 to 2009, and from 2010 to 2014 the show was taped at one of three different studios atNBC's Burbank, California Studios. During Conan O'Brien's brief tenure, the show was taped at an opulently reworked studio on Stage 1 ofUniversal Studios Hollywood.
Over the course of almost 70 years,The Tonight Show has undergone only minor title changes. It aired under the nameTonight for several of its early years, as well asTonight Starring Jack Paar andThe Jack Paar Show due to the runaway popularity of its host, eventually settling permanently onThe Tonight Show after Carson began his tenure in 1962, albeit with the host's name always included in the title. Beginning with Carson's debut episode, network programmers, advertisers, and the show's announcers would refer to the show by including the name of the host:The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, and, currently,The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In the 1950s and 1960s TV listings publications such asTV Guide often listed the show as simplyJack Parr orJohnny Carson.
In 1957, the show briefly tried a more news-style format (during which time its title was adjusted toTonight! America After Dark). It has otherwise adhered to the talk show format introduced by Allen and honed further by Paar.
Carson is the longest-serving host to date, although he is not the host with the most episodes.The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson aired for 30 seasons between October 1962 and May 1992. Leno has the record of having hosted the greatest number of total televised episodes. Leno's record is due to the fact that, unlike Carson (who only produced new shows three days a week, these being typically Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, starting in the 1980s), Leno also never used guest hosts onThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno (exceptKatie Couric, once) and produced new shows five days a week; Leno himself was also Carson's primary guest host for the last five years of Carson's tenure, adding even more episodes to his credit. Leaving out Leno's five years as permanent guest host, Leno hosted 119 more episodes as full-time host than Carson.
During Carson's first four years, the show ran for 105 minutes and then was reduced to ninety minutes in early 1967 when Carson stopped appearing for the first 15 minutes because most affiliates were carrying their local news during that time slot as they expanded to half an hour. During Carson's 1980 contract negotiations, the show was shortened to sixty minutes beginning that September, where it has remained since. NBC also broadcastThe Best of Carson which were repeats of some of Carson's popular older albeit usually recent shows. Prior to the debut ofSaturday Night Live in October 1975, NBC airedThe Best of Carson on Saturday nights at 11:30 pm. During Leno's tenure as permanent guest host,The Best of Carson usually aired on Mondays with Leno hosting on Tuesdays.
Also featuring prominently on Carson's show was hissidekickEd McMahon, who introduced Carson and typically appeared alongside him for the entire episode. By the end of Carson's tenure, McMahon usually only appeared in episodes hosted by Carson, and the use of a sidekick in such a manner has not been continued under Leno and his successors.
Apart from the show's brief run as a news show in 1957, its shortest-serving host was Conan O'Brien, who went on to continue hosting a late-night program following hiscontroversial departure. O'Brien hosted 146 episodes over the course of fewer than eight months before Leno was brought back as host, where he served for almost four additional years. Host Fallon debuted on February 17, 2014. Fallon had previously hostedLate Night with Jimmy Fallon, and beforeLate Night he was a popular member of the cast ofSaturday Night Live, co-hosting the "Weekend Update" segment withTina Fey as well as performing sketches.
From 1950 to 1951, NBC airedBroadway Open House, a nightlyvariety show hosted primarily by comicJerry Lester. It was unsuccessful because hosting five nights a week burned through all of Lester's material faster than he could create it, so he was given rotating hosting duties for a weekly prime time variety show in 1951. The network scaled back late-night programming to shorter weekly shows. A spin-off,Dagmar's Canteen, aired the following season on Saturday nights; at some other point in the week,Mary Kay's Nightcap (which mostly consisted of previews of the next day's programming) also aired that season.
The format ofThe Tonight Show can be traced to a nightly 40-minute local program in New York, hosted by Allen and originally titledThe Knickerbocker Beer Show (after the sponsor). It was quickly retitledThe Steve Allen Show. This premiered in 1953 onWNBT-TV (now broadcasting as WNBC-TV), the local network affiliate station inNew York City. Beginning in September 1954, it was renamedTonight! and began its historic run on the fullNBC network.
| Host | Start date | End date | Duration | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Allen | September 27, 1954 | January 25, 1957 | 2 years, 3 months, 4 weeks and 2 days | 2,000[tablenote 1] |
| Ernie Kovacs | October 1, 1956 | January 22, 1957 | 3 months, 3 weeks and 1 day | |
| Jack Lescoulie | January 28, 1957 | June 21, 1957 | 4 months, 3 weeks and 4 days | |
| Al "Jazzbo" Collins | June 24, 1957 | July 26, 1957 | 1 month and 3 days | |
| Jack Paar | July 29, 1957 | March 30, 1962 | 4 years, 8 months and 2 days | |
| Various hosts[tablenote 2] | April 2, 1962 | September 28, 1962 | 5 months, 3 weeks and 6 days | |
| Johnny Carson | October 1, 1962 | May 22, 1992 | 29 years, 7 months, 3 weeks and 1 day | 4,531[tablenote 3] |
| Jay Leno (first tenure) | May 25, 1992 | May 29, 2009 | 17 years and 5 days | 3,775 |
| Conan O'Brien | June 1, 2009 | January 22, 2010 | 7 months, 3 weeks and 1 day | 146 |
| Jay Leno (second tenure) | March 1, 2010 | February 6, 2014 | 3 years, 11 months and 6 days | 835 |
| Jimmy Fallon | February 17, 2014[1] | present | 11 years, 11 months, 3 weeks and 5 days | 2,253 |
Notes for hosting history
The firstTonight announcer wasGene Rayburn. Allen's version of the show originated talk show staples such as an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, and comedy bits in which cameras were taken outside the studio, as well as music including guest performers, a house vocal group (duoSteve and Eydie, who would marry each other in 1957) and a house band underLyle "Skitch" Henderson.
When the show became a success, Allen got a primetime Sunday comedy/variety show in June 1956, leading him to shareTonight hosting duties withErnie Kovacs during the1956–57 season. To give Allen time to work on his Sunday evening show, Kovacs hostedErnie Kovacs Tonight[2] on Monday and Tuesday nights with his own announcer (Bill Wendell) and bandleader (LeRoy Holmes).
During the later Steve Allen years, regular audience memberLillian Miller (usually referred to as "Miss Miller") became such an integral part that she was forced to joinAmerican Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the television/radio performers union. She would continue to perform the same service for most of the major talk shows for decades, including those hosted by Paar, Carson, Merv Griffin (until 1986), andMike Douglas, among others.
Allen and Kovacs departedTonight in January 1957 after NBC ordered Allen to concentrate all his efforts on his Sunday-night variety program, hoping to combat the dominance of the Sunday night ratings first by CBS'sThe Ed Sullivan Show then by ABC'sMaverick.[citation needed]
Unlike the first installment of Johnny Carson's tenure, which is lost except for audio recordings, akinescope recording of most of the firstTonight Show under Allen survives. In this recording, Allen states during his opening monologue that "this show is going to go on forever"; although in context (and as part of a series of jokes) Allen refers to the fact the program is scheduled to run late into the night, his statement has come to refer to the longevity of the franchise.
Rather than continuing with the same format afterAllen andKovacs's departure fromTonight,NBC changed the show's format to a news and features show, similar to that of the network's popular morning programToday. The new show, renamedTonight! America After Dark, was hosted first byJack Lescoulie (also an announcer and long-time cast member on theToday morning program, 1952–1967) and then byAl ("Jazzbo") Collins, with interviews conducted byHy Gardner, and music provided by theLou Stein Trio (later replaced by theMort Lindsey Quartet, then theJohnny Guarnieri Quartet). This new version of the show was unpopular, resulting in a significant number of NBC affiliates dropping the show.[3]
In July 1957,NBC returned the program to a talk/variety show format once again, withJack Paar (who left his role asmorning show host onCBS to join NBC) becoming the new solo host of the show. Under Paar, most of the NBC affiliates that had dropped the show during the ill-fated run ofTonight! America After Dark began airing the show once again. Paar's era began the practice of branding the series after the host, and as such the program, though officially still calledTonight, was also marketed asThe Jack Paar Show. A combo band conducted by Paar'sArmy buddy pianistJose Melis filled commercial breaks and backed musical entertainers. Paar also introduced the idea of having guest hosts; one of these early hosts wasJohnny Carson. It was also one of the first regularly scheduled network shows to be telecast in color beginning sporadically in September 1957, with regular color broadcasts beginning in September 1960.
On February 11, 1960, Jack Paar unexpectedly walked off the show in the midst of the program – an absence that lasted almost a month – after NBC censors edited out a segment taped the night before about a joke involving a "WC" ("water closet", a polite term for a flush toilet) being confused for a "wayside chapel". As he left his desk, he said, "I am leavingThe Tonight Show. There must be a better way of making a living than this". Paar's abrupt departure left his startled announcer,Hugh Downs, to finish the late-night broadcast himself.[4]
An English lady is visiting Switzerland. She asks about the location of the "W.C." The Swiss, thinking she is referring to the Wayside Chapel, leaves her a note that said (in part) "the W.C. is situated nine miles from the room that you will occupy. It is capable of holding about 229 people and it is only open on Sunday and Thursday. It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C. and it was there that she met her husband. I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you, if you wish, where you will be seen by everyone'.
Paar returned to the show on March 7, 1960, strolled on stage after the opening credits, struck a pose, and said, "As I was saying before I was interrupted . . ."[4] After the audience erupted in applause, Paar continued: "when I walked off, I said there must be a better way of making a living. Well, I've looked—and there isn't!" However, citing that he would prefer to do one prime-time show per week rather than five late-night installments, Paar eventually left the show two years later in March 1962, at the pinnacle of his success as host. The guests on the last show wereJack E. Leonard,Alexander King,Robert Merrill andBuddy Hackett. Among those appearing in taped farewell messages wereRichard Nixon,Robert F. Kennedy,Billy Graham,Bob Hope andJack Benny. Downs was the announcer, and Melis led the band.The Jack Paar Show was moved to the evening's prime time (asThe Jack Paar Program) and aired weekly on Friday nights through the 1965 season. In September 2025,Jimmy Kimmel used the same line to open his first monologue after thesuspension ofhis show.[5]
Johnny Carson was chosen as Paar's successor when Paar chose to leaveThe Tonight Show for a prime time show. Carson was host at the time of the weekday afternoon quiz showWho Do You Trust? on the newest and then lowest-rated radio and television network, theAmerican Broadcasting Company (ABC, as theBlue Network, had been separated from NBC in 1943 owing to government pressure). Because Carson was under contract through September to ABC and producerDon Fedderson (who held him to his contract until the day it expired), he could not take over as host until October 1, 1962. The months between Paar and Carson were filled by a series of guest hosts includingArt Linkletter (4 weeks),Joey Bishop (2 weeks),Bob Cummings,Merv Griffin (4 weeks),Jack Carter,Jan Murray,Peter Lind Hayes andMary Healy,Soupy Sales,Mort Sahl,Steve Lawrence,Jerry Lewis (2 weeks),Jimmy Dean,Arlene Francis,Jack E. Leonard,Hugh Downs,Groucho Marx,Hal March andDonald O'Connor, many of whom later noted they were being led to believe they were auditioning for the job; Francis was among the first women to ever host a late-night talk show. Griffin was so well received as a guest host that NBC gave him his own daytime talk show, the first of three he would host in his broadcasting career, which debuted the same day Carson took over the late-night show, and Lewis's two-week stint was so successful that NBC seriously considered retracting their offer to Carson. Lewis subsequently wound up hosting a lavish 2-hour prime time talk show for ABC entitledThe Jerry Lewis Show, which was famously unsuccessful, and continued his more successful movie career. ABC also picked up Dean as a variety show host, airingThe Jimmy Dean Show for three years from 1963 to 1966.
The show was broadcast under the titleThe Tonight Show during this interregnum, with Skitch Henderson returning as bandleader.Hugh Downs remained as announcer/sidekick until taking over hosting duties onToday in September, at which point he was replaced byEd Herlihy.
Groucho Marx introduced Carson as the new host on October 1, 1962.Ed McMahon was Carson's announcer and on-screen side-kick, the same role he'd filled onWho Do You Trust? McMahon also introduced Carson with the drawn out catchphrase "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!"The Tonight Show orchestra was, for Carson's first four years, still led bySkitch Henderson. After a brief stint byMilton DeLugg, beginning in 1967 the "NBC Orchestra" was then headed by trumpeterDoc Severinsen who had played in the band during the Henderson era. [See "Music and Announcers" below.] For all but a few months of its first decade on the air, Carson'sTonight Show was based in New York City. In 1972, the show moved toBurbank, California into Studio One ofNBC Studios West Coast (although it was announced as coming from nearbyHollywood) for the remainder of his tenure.
Carson lacked the mercurial, electric personality of Paar, and his version ofThe Tonight Show never riveted the country's attention the way that Paar's had, but his more predictable approach eventually became part of the cultural landscape by virtue of the fact that the viewership, in a basically three-network paradigm, was infinitely more monolithic than it later became. Examples include when he played the gameTwister withEva Gabor in 1966, which increased the sales of the relatively unknown game. In December 1973, when Carson joked about analleged shortage of toilet paper, panic buying and hoarding ensued across the United States as consumers emptied stores, causing a real shortage that lasted for weeks. Stores and toilet paper manufacturers had to ration supplies until the panic ended.
Carson's ratings usually substantially led his timeslot, in spite of the fact that he intermittently faced many other late-night competitors includingLes Crane,Bill Dana,David Frost,Regis Philbin,Alan Thicke,Jerry Lewis,Joan Rivers,David Brenner,Pat Sajak,Ron Reagan,Dennis Miller, and most notablySteve Allen,Arsenio Hall, Joey Bishop, Merv Griffin, andDick Cavett (Carson saw his friend Cavett as his real competition but Cavett was on ABC, a much smaller network at the time).
As primetimevariety shows such asThe Ed Sullivan Show faded in prominence over the course of the 1970s, Carson'sTonight Show emerged as a showcase for all kinds of talent, as well as continuing the tradition of a vaudeville-style variety show.[6][7] Carson's show continued Paar's tradition of launching the careers of a number of comedians, in Carson's case includingJerry Seinfeld,David Letterman,Joan Rivers,Jeff Foxworthy,Ellen DeGeneres,Freddie Prinze,David Brenner,Tim Allen,Drew Carey, andRoseanne Barr.
Carson also frequently used guest hosts, especially after 1981 when he negotiated a contract that gave him numerous weeks off every year, as well as Mondays. Frequent guest hosts (over 50 episodes each) included Joey Bishop (177 times, mostly in the 1960s), Joan Rivers (93, during the 1970s and 1980s), John Davidson (87), Bob Newhart (87), David Brenner (70), McLean Stevenson (58), Jerry Lewis (52, mostly in the 1960s), David Letterman (51, mostly between 1980 and 1981), andJay Leno. By the late 1980s, Leno was designated the permanent and only guest host, and consequently hosted several dozen episodes each year, totalling 333 "guest host" appearances during Carson's tenure.
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On May 22, 1992, Johnny Carson retired after three decades behind the iconic late-night desk, and was replaced byJay Leno amid national and media controversy.David Letterman wanted to move into that earlier time slot from hisLate Night spot (which had been broadcast following Carson's program) afterThe Tonight Show, and was considered personally by Carson (whose opinion was not revealed until several years later) as his natural successor[8] despite Leno having been Carson's permanent guest host for several years.[9] Letterman, having had his heart set on the earlier time slot in spite of Leno's ratings success as recurring substitute host, left NBC (on Carson's advice) and joined rival networkCBS. Their new program and entry into the late-night television universe,Late Show with David Letterman, airing in the same slot, competed head to head againstThe Tonight Show with Leno in the host's chair and behind that iconic desk, for the better part of two decades,[10] although Leno consistently enjoyed higher ratings after the first two years.
On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of the show's premiere, NBC announced that Leno would be succeeded byConan O'Brien in 2009. The network shocked Leno, who had been consistently number one in the time period, when he was told that he would be fired in five years, with O'Brien taking over the slot at that time. Leno told his audience about this unique network decision at the beginning of his next show, mentioning that he had accepted it, noting that he wanted to avoid repeating the hard feelings that had somehow developed with Letterman, and called O'Brien "certainly the most deserving person for the job" in the wake of his (Leno's) eventual departure. Five years later, what was to have been the final episode ofThe Tonight Show with Leno as host aired on Friday, May 29, 2009.
Not wanting Leno, who remained number one in the ratings, to move to a competing network, NBC signed the host to a new contract to host a new prime-time talk show beginning in September 2009, entitledThe Jay Leno Show, with a format similar to hisTonight Show except that he was contractually prohibited from using a desk on the show. In a departure from network programming conventions of the time, the new show aired every weeknight at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific, competing with expensively produced narrative series on other networks and leading into affiliates' local news broadcasts and O'Brien'sTonight Show.
Conan O'Brien replaced Leno as host onThe Tonight Show on Monday, June 1, 2009 from a newly constructed studio inside Stage 1 of theUniversal Studios Hollywood backlot, temporarily ending an era (since 1972) of recording the show in Burbank.
After a strong debut week, O'Brien's total audience fell precipitously over the summer months, and the program began losing toLate Show with David Letterman in overall ratings. In contrast, O'Brien's performance in the crucial 18–49 demographic was favorable, and it was found that he had brought down the median age ofThe Tonight Show audience by a decade compared with his predecessor, indicating that a generational shift was taking effect as O'Brien established himself in an earlier timeslot.[12] Taking this into account, columnist Tom Shales assessed in August 2009 that O'Brien was in a better position than Leno had been when he began hisTonight Show run in 1992; Leno consistently lost to Letterman in the ratings for eighteen months before eventually cementing his number one status.[13]
The Jay Leno Show debuted in September 2009, three months into O'Brien'sTonight Show tenure, performing to significantly lower ratings than the primetime dramas it had replaced on NBC and trailing the competition. NBC had expected the drop, having calculated that lower ratings would be balanced by a talk show's correspondingly lower expense compared to more popular scripted programming.[14] In the 11:35 period,The Late Show would largely maintain its lead overThe Tonight Show in total viewers in early Fall, during which Letterman was receiving tabloid attention due to ablackmail scandal. In addition,The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was in the unusual situation of being a talk show following a talk show hosted by its predecessor on the same network, and the booking war that resulted often leftThe Tonight Show getting second dibs on guests. One publicist reported that the aggression was such thatThe Jay Leno Show had signaled to potential guests that doing O'Brien's program before Leno's would be punished with secondary placement in the line-up.[15]
Though NBC claimed that the performance ofThe Jay Leno Show offered no surprises and that O'Brien was meeting expectations as well, the network had failed to anticipate the impact that Leno's weaker 10 pm lead-in would have on the local 11 pm news, which suffered a drastic drop in ratings (between 25%–50% nationwide) as a demonstrable result. As the affiliates rely on the revenue generated during the news, this generated a furor from the local stations and placed pressure on NBC to quickly fix the 10 pm situation, which was contributing to a cascading effect on the ratings ofThe Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien andLate Night with Jimmy Fallon,[16][17] although the ratings of O'Brien'sTonight Show had already nosedived months before Leno's prime time show went on the air.
On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that beginning March 1, 2010, Leno would move from his 10 p.m. weeknight time slot back to the traditionalTonight Show slot at 11:35.[18][19] Under this proposal, Leno's show would be shortened from an hour to 30 minutes, which would make the monologue, Leno's most popular segment, the essence of the program. This would moveThe Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m., a post-midnight start for the first time in its sixty-year history, whileLate Night with Jimmy Fallon would be pushed to 1:05 am, andLast Call with Carson Daly would likely be cancelled. Under NBC's (later contested) interpretation of O’Brien's contract, the host was only guaranteedThe Tonight Show in name rather than the 11:35 pm slot with which it was synonymous.[20]
On January 10, NBC confirmed it would be moving Leno out of primetime as of February 12 and intended to move him back to late-night as soon as possible.[21][22]TMZ reported that O'Brien was given no advance notice of this change, and that NBC offered him a choice:The Tonight Show in a 12:05 a.m. time slot, or the option to leave the network.[23] On January 12, O'Brien issued a press release that stated he would not continue withTonight if it was moved to a 12:05 a.m. time slot, saying, "I believe that delayingThe Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting.The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn'tThe Tonight Show."[24]
WhenOprah Winfrey later quoted this statement to Leno during an episode ofThe Oprah Winfrey Show in the aftermath of the fallout, he responded: "Well, if you look at where [Conan'sTonight Show] ratings were, it was already destructive to the franchise".[25]Leno was criticized for his remark, which contradicted his statement that "I think Conan is doing fine" mere months earlier,[26] after which O’Brien's ratings were on an upward trend.[27] Some observers[who?] considered the portrayal of O'Brien's ouster as being specifically about the host's ratings to be spin, as it ignored O'Brien's far less expensive contract (and thus far less expensive buyout), O'Brien's improving ratings before the controversy, and O'Brien's younger demographics, all of which suggested profitability.
After the decision was made to reinstate Leno, NBC executives and Leno maintained in the media that O'Brien's ratings were responsible for his removal from the traditionalTonight Show time slot, while O'Brien's supporters argued that the incumbent host had been denied the unambiguous transition, network support and time to grow that his predecessor had received. In addition, it was pointed out that Leno's 10 pm program, rather than O'Brien's performance, had forced the need for line-up changes, while Leno's penalty clause all but guaranteed his continued presence on NBC late night after the cancellation of his primetime show. O'Brien's rating surge during the controversy was also seen by some of his proponents as having the potential to be the host's "Hugh Grant moment" – an allusion to a 1995 interview onThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno that aired shortly after the British actor had been caught publicly soliciting a prostitute.[28] Leno's interview with Grant was widely watched due to the scandal, and Leno's fortunes in his rivalry with Letterman permanently turned around in its wake.
TheNew York Post advanced a theory that O'Brien being the cheaper host to lose was the cardinal factor in NBC's decision to negotiate his departure. ThePost claimed that Leno had an "ironclad" guarantee for $150 million if he had been taken off the air, far higher than what it would cost for O'Brien to depart the network.[29] Skip Brittenham, an entertainment attorney and partner at the law firm that had negotiated Leno's contract, was later asked about this claim in an interview. Though Brittenham refused to comment on the veracity of the publicly reported penalty figure, he allowed that "I think the facts speak for themselves."[30]
On January 21, it was announced that NBC had struck a deal with O'Brien in which he would leaveThe Tonight Show and receive a $33 million payout – effectively a buyout of his three-year contract, which was reputed to be approximately $12 million a year. O'Brien's staff of almost 200 would receive $12 million divided in their departure, making the total of the settlement $45 million. O'Brien's final episode aired on Friday, January 22, ending his relationship with NBC after 22 years. Leno resumed hostingThe Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, after NBC's coverage of the2010 Winter Olympics concluded.[31][32][33]
O'Brien returned to late-night television on November 8, 2010 (after hisnon-compete agreement expired), hosting the self-ownedConan on cable channelTBS. Conan remained partnered with TBS until 2021, although his show was truncated from an hour to thirty minutes in length in 2019 due to ratings issues. Conan's final episode on TBS aired on June 24, 2021.
On March 1, 2010, Jay Leno returned toThe Tonight Show, withWally Wingert as his announcer. On April 12, 2010, bandleaderKevin Eubanks announced his departure after 18 years (15 years as bandleader) on May 28.[34]Rickey Minor replaced him as bandleader on June 7.[35] On July 1, 2010,Variety reported that only six months into its second life, Leno'sTonight Show posted its lowest ratings since 1992.[36] By September 2010, Leno's ratings had fallen below O'Brien's when he had hostedThe Tonight Show, although O'Brien's ratings had spiked during the show's final days during the media publicity onslaught, and this tally pivots upon that anomalous spike in O'Brien's ratings.[37] NBC ratings specialist Tom Bierbaum commented that due to the host being out of late-night television for a period of time and the subsequent2010Tonight Show conflict, Leno's ratings fall was "not a surprise at all."[38] In October 2010,David Letterman beat Leno's program in the ratings, for the first time since Leno returned to hostingThe Tonight Show.[39][40] By May 2011, Leno regained the lead over Letterman and held it until leaving the show in February 2014.[41] In August 2012, TheLos Angeles Times reported thatThe Tonight Show was in trouble for a number of reasons, notably that NBC was losing money.[42] TheTimes later elaborated, noting that advertising revenue fromThe Tonight Show had dropped more than 40% since 2007, from $255.9 million annually to $146.1 million.[43] Still, despite these problems, during 2012–13,The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was consistently the highest-ranking late-night show, regularly achieving audiences of over 3.5 million, according toNielsen ratings. Leno's audience became considerably smaller after its peak 2002–03 season, when it routinely attracted 5.8 million viewers a night. This was partly due to the continuing fragmentation of the TV audience, with an increasing number of cable shows, such asThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart,The Colbert Report and Conan O'Brien'snew show on TBS,[44] in addition to competition with Letterman on CBS and since January 8, 2013,Jimmy Kimmel Live! onABC, although Leno continued to lead the time slot.
On April 3, 2013, after a dispute with the network over Leno's joking about the network's poor prime time performance in his monologues, NBC announced that Leno would retire in 2014, withLate Night hostJimmy Fallon taking overThe Tonight Show after the conclusion of NBC's coverage of the2014 Winter Olympics. It was Leno's suggestion to use NBC's coverage of the Olympics as a springboard for Fallon's tenure.[45] The date was later moved up a week to February 17, midway through the Olympics.[46]
Leno's lastTonight Show aired on February 6, 2014, featuring guestsBilly Crystal (Leno's first guest in 1992) andGarth Brooks. Leno gave a tearful goodbye at the end of the program, calling himself "the luckiest guy in the world", and reflecting on his time as host as "the greatest 22 years of my life."[47]
Jimmy Fallon (who had hostedThe Tonight Show's follow-up show,Late Night, since 2009) assumedThe Tonight Show hosting role on February 17, 2014, with his initial guests beingWill Smith and the rock bandU2, plus an assortment of celebrity cameos, including an appearance by one of Fallon's direct broadcast competitors,Stephen Colbert (who would later replace David Letterman on the competingThe Late Show in 2015), and another by former permanent guest hostJoan Rivers, making her first appearance onTonight since cutting ties with Carson in 1986. The show's opening sequence was directed by filmmakerSpike Lee.[48]
As part of the transition to Fallon,The Tonight Show would be brought back to New York City after 42 years in Southern California. Approximately $5 million was budgeted to renovateStudio 6B, where Fallon recordedLate Night.[49] The move also enabled NBC to take advantage of a newly enacted New York state tax credit for talk shows that are "filmed before a studio audience of at least 200, as long as they carry a production budget of at least $30 million and have been shot outside New York for at least five seasons."[50] Studio 6B is also whereJack Paar andJohnny Carson hostedThe Tonight Show before the show moved to Burbank in 1972.[49]Lorne Michaels (producer ofSaturday Night Live, in which Fallon appeared prior to hostingLate Night) became executive producer ofThe Tonight Show.
Fallon'sTonight Show has gone on the road to produce episodes remotely in its first year, spending four days atUniversal Orlando Resort in Florida in June 2014 to promote new attractions atNBCUniversal's theme parks there.[51] In February 2015, Fallon presented a special Sunday night show fromPhoenix, Arizona airing after NBC's coverage ofSuper Bowl XLIX, followed by four days of shows in Stage 1 atUniversal Studios Hollywood inLos Angeles (where Conan O'Brien's version was produced).[52][53]
Aside from the title change and a new set, Fallon's version ofThe Tonight Show is nearly identical to the format ofLate Night he employed, as he imported many of his signature comedy bits and much of hisLate Night staff, including house bandThe Roots and announcerSteve Higgins. Prior to the transition, Fallon said, "In our heads, we've been doingThe Tonight Show for five years. We're just on at a later hour."[54]
Music during the show's introduction and commercialsegues is supplied byThe Tonight Show Band. This ensemble was a jazzbig band until the end of Johnny Carson's tenure.Skitch Henderson was thebandleader during the Steve Allen and early Carson years, followed briefly byMilton DeLugg (who had previously led the band onBroadway Open House and later became the musical director ofThe Gong Show).Gene Rayburn served as Allen's announcer and sidekick and also guest-hosted some episodes all the way through the early part of Carson's run. TheLou Stein Trio originally provided musical accompaniment during the short run ofTonight! America After Dark, which ran for six months between the Steve Allen/Ernie Kovacs and Jack Paar eras ofThe Tonight Show, and was later replaced by theMort Lindsey Quartet, which in turn, was replaced by theJohnny Guarnieri Quartet.José Melis led the band for Jack Paar, and, after a short while of using comic actorFranklin Pangborn,Hugh Downs was Paar's announcer. For most of Johnny Carson's run on the show, the show's band, then called "The NBC Orchestra" was led byDoc Severinsen, former trumpet soloist in Henderson's band for Steve Allen.
When McMahon was away from the show, Severinsen was the substitute announcer andTommy Newsom would lead the band. (Newsom also took over when Severinsen was absent from the show.) On the rare occasions that both McMahonand Severinsen were away, Newsom would take the announcer's chair and the band would be led by assistant musical director Shelly Cohen.
Severinsen's big band featured several accomplished sidemen in addition to saxophonist Newsom, including trumpeterSnooky Young, pianistRoss Tompkins, drummerEd Shaughnessy, trumpeter John Audino, trumpeterConte Candoli, saxophonistPete Christlieb, and jazz trumpet legendClark Terry. The band frequently appeared on camera in the "Stump the Band" segments, where an audience member would dare the band to play some obscure song title, and the band would comically improvise something appropriate. The routine was played for full comedy value and the band was not really expected to know the songs; on two occasions the band did answer correctly, much to the maestro's surprise. Severinsen was heard to ask incredulously, "You mean weactually...?"
When Carson's tenure ended in 1992, the orchestra was axed and replaced by a smaller ensemble. The first bandleader during Leno's tenure wasBranford Marsalis. In 1992, The Tonight Show Band also welcomed its first female member,Vicki Randle.[55] In 1995,Kevin Eubanks replaced Marsalis, though the Marsalis-written theme was used throughout Leno's first tenure. On March 29, 2004,John Melendez fromThe Howard Stern Show replaced Leno's long-time announcerEdd Hall.
Conan O'Brien announced on the February 18, 2009, episode ofLate Night thatThe Max Weinberg 7 (rechristened as The Tonight Show Band, and adding a second percussionist), the house band on that program, would be accompanying him toThe Tonight Show as his version's house band. It was announced February 23, 2009, that formerLate Night sidekickAndy Richter would be O'Brien's announcer. Richter replaced O'Brien's former long-time announcerJoel Godard (who stayed behind in New York) when his rendition ofThe Tonight Show began.
For the second incarnation ofThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno, a new bandleader was selected, though original bandleader Kevin Eubanks returned for a few weeks in the transition. He officially announced his departure after 18 years on April 12, 2010, with his final episode airing May 28.Rickey Minor was announced as his replacement, and took over on June 7. The show also inaugurated a new theme tune composed by Minor.
With the return of Leno'sTonight Show in March 2010, Melendez continued in the writing role, which he was assigned to on the prime-timeThe Jay Leno Show, although the announcing duty went toWally Wingert.
Jimmy Fallon began hostingThe Tonight Show on February 17, 2014; his house band onLate Night,The Roots, joined him, as did announcerSteve Higgins. Fallon has used guest hosts rarely, co-hosting the April 9th, 2018, broadcast withCardi B,Kevin Hart co-hosting the September 19, 2018, broadcast,Dave Grohl co-hosting the May 24, 2021, broadcast,Jimmy Kimmel hosting the April 1, 2022, broadcast (with Fallon swapping duties to guest hostJimmy Kimmel Live!),Shawn Mendes co-hosting the April 29, 2022, broadcast,Megan Thee Stallion co-hosting the August 11, 2022, broadcast,Demi Lovato co-hosting the August 17, 2022, broadcast,Jack Harlow co-hosting the October 6, 2022, broadcast andBad Bunny co-hosting the January 13, 2025, broadcast.
The Tonight Show began its broadcast at 11:15 p.m.ET, following an affiliate's 15-minute news broadcast. As more affiliates lengthened their local news programs to 30 minutes, the show began doing two openings, one for the affiliates that began at 11:15 and another for those who joined at 11:30. By early 1965, only 43 of the 190 affiliated stations carried the entire show.[56] After February 1965, Johnny Carson refused to appear until 11:30, and Ed McMahon "hosted" the 11:15 segment. Carson was not happy with this arrangement since McMahon's monologue covered the same ground as Carson's, and he finally insisted that the show's start time be changed to 11:30. As a result, the two-opening practice was eliminated in December 1966.[57]
When the show began it wasbroadcastlive. On January 12, 1959, the show began to bevideotaped for broadcast later on the same day, although initially the Thursday night programs were kept live.[58][59]Color broadcasts began on September 19, 1960.[60]
The Tonight Show became the first American television program to broadcast withMTS stereo sound in 1984, at first sporadically, by audio engineer Ron Estes. Regular use of MTS began in 1985. In September 1991, the show's start time was shifted by five minutes to 11:35, in order to give network affiliates the opportunity to sell additional advertising during their late local newscasts. On April 26, 1999, the show started broadcasting in1080iHDTV, becoming the first American nightly talk show to be shot in that format.
On March 19, 2009,The Tonight Show became the first late-night talk show in history to have the sittingPresident of the United States as a guest, when PresidentBarack Obama visited Jay Leno.
Throughout the years, the starting time and the length ofThe Tonight Show has changed multiple times.[61]
| Begin date | End date | Nights | Start | End | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 27, 1954 | October 5, 1956 | Mon–Fri | 11:30 | 1:00 | Allen |
| October 8, 1956 | January 4, 1957 | Mon–Fri | 11:30 | 12:30 | Allen |
| January 7, 1957 | December 30, 1966 | Mon–Fri | 11:15[§] | 1:00 | Allen, Paar, Carson |
| January 2, 1967 | September 5, 1980 | Mon–Fri | 11:30 | 1:00 | Carson |
| September 8, 1980 | August 30, 1991 | Mon–Fri | 11:30 | 12:30 | Carson |
| September 2, 1991 | February 6, 2014[62] | Mon–Fri | 11:35 | 12:37 | Carson, Leno, O'Brien, Leno |
| February 17, 2014 | present | Mon–Fri | 11:34 | 12:37 | Fallon |
§ Many NBC affiliates chose not to carry the first fifteen minutes of the show during this period, instead preferring to air a local newscast from 11 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. As of February 1965, Carson refused to host the first 15 minutes of the program, preferring to wait until the full network was in place before delivering his opening monologue; Ed McMahon hosted the program's first 15 minutes instead. This persisted for nearly two years, until the show's start time was finally adjusted to 11:30 p.m. in January 1967.
From 1965 to 1975, until the premiere ofSaturday Night Live, weekend repeats ofThe Tonight Show were staples of the NBC schedule. These repeats ran in the following time slots:
| Begin date | End date | Nights | Start | End | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 9, 1965 | January 1, 1967 | Sat or Sun | 11:15 | 1:00 | Repeats, known asThe Saturday/Sunday Tonight Show |
| January 7, 1967 | September 28, 1975 | Sat or Sun | 11:30 | 1:00 | Repeats; known asThe Best of Carson andThe Weekend Tonight Show |
Allen
Kovacs
Paar
Carson
Leno
O'Brien
Fallon
Many of Fallon's sketches moved over fromLate Night.
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The Tonight Show airs on channel 7 in Australia,CTV 2 in Canada,Sky Comedy in the UK,CNBC in Europe,Comedy Central in India,CNBC in Pakistan,Jack TV in the Philippines,OSN in theMiddle East andNorth Africa, andCNBC in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Tonight Show is also seen around the world. It is broadcast onCNBC Europe, usually three nights after it has been shown in the U.S. The show is screened at 10:30 p.m. AEDST weeknights onThe Comedy Channel in Australia, where new episodes are shown hours after its American broadcast. In Sweden,Kanal 5 has shownThe Tonight Show (asJay Leno Show) since the late 1990s with one week's delay. Since October 2006, it is also being aired in India onZee Café 12 hours after the show is shown in the USA.[67] For the Jimmy Fallon edition of the show, Comedy Central has aired the show 12 hours after the American broadcast since October 27, 2014.[68]
In addition to its broadcast on CNBC Europe,The Tonight Show airs onOne inGermany, with German subtitles, weekdays at 11:00 p.m., one day after its American broadcast.
In India and Sri LankaThe Tonight Show airs onComedy Central India on Weeknights at 11 pm IST/SLST – within 24 hours of the American Broadcast.[69]
Also, in Sri LankaCNBC Asia (CNBCLife) airs back-to-back editions of the show on weekends.[70]
An early attempt at airing the show byLondon Weekend Television in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s was unsuccessful, sparking jokes by Carson. On the October 23, 1984, broadcast, guestPaul McCartney had this to say of the show's British run:
Carson:(throwing to commercial) OK, we're gonna have to cut away. We're just gonna see a commercial. We sell things occasionally. It's not like the British telly, you know. You just go forever, ten or twelve [minutes]. British television ends when they – you know, when they want to.McCartney:(jokingly) Yeah, you're just mad because they didn't like your show.[71]
Advertising for NBC'sThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno has fallen by more than 40% since 2007, according to Kanter Media, an industry consulting firm. In 2007,The Tonight Show took in $255.9 million. Last year, that figure was $146.1 million.
