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Bill Carter: Late-night television’s golden age is over

For now, America's Got Talent and the current Press Your Luck give me my TV excitement, and I'm not sure what will replace that in the fall...
Elizabeth Banks is a really good host. I actually thought that I would record it all and just watch the antics of The Whammy. But watching people win prizes and increase their total dramatically is really exciting. And because I would always see the end when watching my recording of "Generation Gap" (not sure why I did it that way but I kept that up) I would not have to worry they would lose it all unless they did.

"America's Got Talent" would be too much of a time commitment for me although I might have enjoyed some if not all the acts.
 
In the discussion of ratings for "Gutfeld" versus other late-night talk shows, it should be mentioned that "Gutfeld" starts a half hour earlier than the other shows in the Eastern and Central time zones, and that does make a substantial difference in ratings, since there are a lot more viewers at 11 ET/10 CT than a half hour later. Another factor is that "Gutfeld" actually runs in primetime in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, since Fox News airs live in all time zones.

That said, the ratings for all of the late night talk shows look pretty pathetic compared to years past. And I'll note that even in the "golden age" of those late-night talk shows, the ratings weren't necessarily all that impressive. I remember at one point in the nineties, the second highest rated show at 10:30 here in Dallas was "I Love Lucy" reruns, which beat most of the talk shows. Ten years earlier, Johnny Carson was losing to "MASH" or "All In The Family" reruns in multiple markets.
 
Ten years earlier, Johnny Carson was losing to "MASH" or "All In The Family" reruns in multiple markets.
And if I remember right, Carson's Tonight Show never faced any direct comedy/variety show competition from ABC or CBS. Of course, I was a kid when Carson retired, so my memory is quite vague on the topic.
 
And if I remember right, Carson's Tonight Show never faced any direct comedy/variety show competition from ABC or CBS. Of course, I was a kid when Carson retired, so my memory is quite vague on the topic.
CBS: Merv Griffin, 1969-72
ABC: Joey Bishop, 1967-69
 
Fair enough. Carson never faced direct competition in any year when I was alive! ;)
 
Arsenio Hall had a talk show vs The Tonight Show in Carson's last year's as it's host (1989-1992).
Arsenio Hall was in syndication it was the defacto CBS Late Night Talker before they got David Letterman in fall of 93. WOTV it had different call letters in the 80's channel 41 cable channel 4 on most systems in West Michigan aired Arsenio at 1:30AM when it debuted in Jan 89, WXMI Fox17 took it in its second season airing first at 11PM in the fall of 89 before moving to 10PM for the rest of it's run 90-94.

Arsenio was largely on Fox or CBS stations across the country I was surprised that Fox couldn't finish the deal with Arsenio to make it Fox's late-night talker I saw Dark Side Of The 90's EP on The Arsenio Hall Show in the summer.
 
In the discussion of ratings for "Gutfeld" versus other late-night talk shows, it should be mentioned that "Gutfeld" starts a half hour earlier than the other shows in the Eastern and Central time zones, and that does make a substantial difference in ratings, since there are a lot more viewers at 11 ET/10 CT than a half hour later. Another factor is that "Gutfeld" actually runs in primetime in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, since Fox News airs live in all time zones.

That said, the ratings for all of the late night talk shows look pretty pathetic compared to years past. And I'll note that even in the "golden age" of those late-night talk shows, the ratings weren't necessarily all that impressive. I remember at one point in the nineties, the second highest rated show at 10:30 here in Dallas was "I Love Lucy" reruns, which beat most of the talk shows. Ten years earlier, Johnny Carson was losing to "MASH" or "All In The Family" reruns in multiple markets.

The syndicated sitcom reruns that KMBC ran after the 10PM news instead of Nightline were often #1
 
In the discussion of ratings for "Gutfeld" versus other late-night talk shows, it should be mentioned that "Gutfeld" starts a half hour earlier than the other shows in the Eastern and Central time zones, and that does make a substantial difference in ratings, since there are a lot more viewers at 11 ET/10 CT than a half hour later. Another factor is that "Gutfeld" actually runs in primetime in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, since Fox News airs live in all time zones.

That said, the ratings for all of the late night talk shows look pretty pathetic compared to years past. And I'll note that even in the "golden age" of those late-night talk shows, the ratings weren't necessarily all that impressive. I remember at one point in the nineties, the second highest rated show at 10:30 here in Dallas was "I Love Lucy" reruns, which beat most of the talk shows. Ten years earlier, Johnny Carson was losing to "MASH" or "All In The Family" reruns in multiple markets.
That has nothing to do with it. Conan lagged sorely behind the other hosts being on tbs. I think it has to do with the fact that he's on fox, it has a large audience and gels with the rest of the programming (he's essentially a "fox host" with a slight comedic slant vs Conans big bang viewers or family guy viewers which didn't stick around.)
 
Reminiscing a bit, for most of Carson's run, channel 13 in Birmingham ran it a half hour to an hour later, and put old sitcoms on after the news.
 
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