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Hosts who grow into the job

W

wadio

When Tucker Carlson began his 8 pm show on Fox it was a disaster. It consisted of him shouting down guests with whom he disagreed without letting them get a word in. Then at some point the focus shifted to presenting stories that other hosts weren't covering and the ratings proved that was the right thing to do.

When Jesse Watters began his 7pm show on Fox it consisted of silly "Watters World" clips and other fluff. The past few days have been very different. He's a smart guy and a good interviewer. I hope that continues.
 
I'd say many hosts are like that. Taking Fox News out of the equation and going back to when a few younger late night network TV hosts took the reigns - When Letterman decided to move to CBS and Conan O'Brien was tapped to take over Late Night, no one, including him, thought he'd last long and he wobbled a bit at the beginning, but then he did fine until being squeezed out by the whole Leno/Fallon/O'Brien mess when he moved to TBS and continued his show there. When Jimmy Fallon first came on the scene as a late night TV show host, he was bad. His interviews were awkward and it took him some time to find his stride. Until then, he was at times painful to watch.

Since you mention right wing hosts, there was also the relatively short-lived Rush Limbaugh TV show, which was carried overnight where I lived at the time. He quickly found that hosting a 3 hour radio show was quite different from a nightly TV program where you needed to do more than just rant and give slanted opinions about the news items of the day to hold an audience. You needed video clips, interviews and to create something that was truly "watchable". It didn't last long before they pulled the plug completely.
 
One of the things i liked about David Letterman was his choice of musical guests, unlike Carson, he was willing to keep abreast of who was "hot" in the music scene. Can you imagine The Bangles or Suzanne Vega appearing on Carson's show or The Go-Gos? Johnny hated those type of acts, unlike Joan Rivers or Jay Leno, who had the guts to have them booked when they were guest hosting. I even remember Bill Cosby having a quite hip musical act once on when he was the guest host.
 
danderson6500 said:
One of the things i liked about David Letterman was his choice of musical guests, unlike Carson, he was willing to keep abreast of who was "hot" in the music scene. Can you imagine The Bangles or Suzanne Vega appearing on Carson's show or The Go-Gos? Johnny hated those type of acts, unlike Joan Rivers or Jay Leno, who had the guts to have them booked when they were guest hosting. I even remember Bill Cosby having a quite hip musical act once on when he was the guest host.
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For Letterman, hiring Paul Shaffer as his wing man was a brilliant move, as he knew which acts were hot.
 
danderson6500 said:
One of the things i liked about David Letterman was his choice of musical guests, unlike Carson, he was willing to keep abreast of who was "hot" in the music scene. Can you imagine The Bangles or Suzanne Vega appearing on Carson's show or The Go-Gos? Johnny hated those type of acts.
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I think this started back in the days when Carson was doing the Tonight Show and Letterman had Late Night. Carson's show was more focused on hosting movie and TV stars and those from the world of 'showbiz', with some of his own sketch comedy and of course, a full orchestra which he personally loved. Letterman's show was later, lots of Carson's viewers were in bed and Letterman was watched by more college kids, etc. His show was more trendy and "youthful" for lack of a better term with the musical artists he'd have on, the eccentric 'characters' he'd interview, some off the wall sketches (featuring people like Larry Bud Melman, Chris Elliott and the sweet old librarian who'd bring Dave books to read, then curse like a trooper). He also had some more off the wall bits, like jumping onto a fabric wall while wearing a velcro suit, dropping things off a 5 story building, stupid pet/human tricks and the like. When he moved to the earlier slot at CBS he took a lot of his shtick and better known bits with him (though some had to stay with NBC or be renamed if he was to use them at CBS due to contractual concerns). He kept a bit of the edginess throughout his time at CBS, including when he concluded and signed off following his final show, and the credits rolled while the Foo Fighters performed "Everlong".
 
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Prager's TV show lasted a year, while Rush Limbaugh lasted 3 or 4 seasons.
 
nomadcowatbk said:
Roger Allies was the one who pushed Rush to do TV, that show ended around the time FNC launched.
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which itself also occurred in the wake of the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, which was a domestic terrorist attack by a far right extremists who wanted revenge for Waco 2 years earlier in 1993, in which he picked the 2nd anniversary of the fiery end of the standoff that lasted for over 2 months on April 19. i saw a recent episode of Vice's Dark Side of The 90s (a spinoff of Dark Side of The Ring) about him that talked about his rise on conservative talk radio, his right wing late night show, the right wing extremists movement of the 90s and how his show's help feuded it, his short stint at ESPN, and to the every end of his life last year including getting the Medal of Freedom (which he didn't deserve by the way). if you have cable with a subscription package with Vice TV with it, i recommend you watch that.

now, back on topic, i say Colbert has grown into the Late Show after taking over it from David Letterman after he retired in 2015, now it's one of the must see talk shows to watch if your political views are "leaning left".
 
wadio said:
When Tucker Carlson began his 8 pm show on Fox it was a disaster. It consisted of him shouting down guests with whom he disagreed without letting them get a word in. Then at some point the focus shifted to presenting stories that other hosts weren't covering and the ratings proved that was the right thing to do.

When Jesse Watters began his 7pm show on Fox it consisted of silly "Watters World" clips and other fluff. The past few days have been very different. He's a smart guy and a good interviewer. I hope that continues.
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Tucker is still a disaster but that is what they want.
 
Don CT said:
Tucker is still a disaster but that is what they want.
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That's wadio's way of saying hes a trumper supporter without saying hes a trumper supporter if he thinks anything that comes outta fox is good
 
In terms of the country's total TV audience, cable ratings, and especially cable news ratings, are not much to brag about. It's all relative, yet fans of pundits on all channels act like there are tens of millions of viewers tuning in every night.
 
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