The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show, long-running American late-night television talk show. Airing since 1954 on NBC, it is the standard against which others of its genre are judged. The show has won multiple Emmy Awards.
(Read Steve Allen’s Britannica essay on The Tonight Show.)
Except for a brief (and unpopular) switch to a magazine-type news program in 1957, the format of the show has been remarkably consistent throughout its history. In many ways resembling a variety show, The Tonight Show combines a nightly monologue by the host, comedy sketches, musical guests, and celebrity interviews, all permeated by the signature style and persona of the show’s host, thus creating a nightly topical entertainment program with a pop-culture focus. The program has had six principal hosts in its history—Steve Allen (1954–57), Jack Paar (1957–62), Johnny Carson (1962–92), Jay Leno (1992–2009, 2010–14), Conan O’Brien (2009–10), and Jimmy Fallon (2014– )—as well as numerous guest hosts and sidekicks or cohosts, the most significant of whom was Ed McMahon, Carson’s longtime partner. Each host brought his own strengths and talents to the show: Allen was known primarily as a gifted comedian with improvisational and musical skills, whereas Paar was praised more for his skills as a conversationalist. Carson brought a completely different tone and style, returning the show to its comic roots, moving it from New York City to Burbank, California, and becoming one of the most-beloved figures in American television history during his nearly 30-year tenure as the “king of late night.”
After Carson’s retirement, Leno took over as the host amid some controversy, for David Letterman (another well-known comedian, with a late-night show of his own airing on NBC after The Tonight Show) was considered by many (including Carson himself) to be Carson’s natural heir. Disappointed at not being chosen, Letterman left NBC for rival network CBS and received his own late-night show opposite The Tonight Show, called the Late Show with David Letterman (1993–2015). During a period in which late-night talk shows proliferated (Arsenio Hall, Chevy Chase, Magic Johnson, and others had less-than-successful shows of their own), Letterman proved to be the first serious challenger to the late-night dominance of The Tonight Show. The two programs, quite similar in format, became locked in a struggle for ratings supremacy, though The Tonight Show typically prevailed.
Hoping to avoid another contentious transition like that of 1992, NBC in 2004 announced that Leno would be replaced in 2009 by O’Brien, host of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the program that aired on the network following The Tonight Show. After O’Brien became host, however, The Tonight Show lost viewers. In an effort to improve ratings and return Leno to late night (after his unsuccessful stint with a talk show at an earlier time slot), NBC suggested that The Tonight Show be pushed back by 30 minutes to accommodate a new program for Leno. O’Brien, however, rejected the proposal, and speculation soon began that Leno would rejoin The Tonight Show. After several weeks of heated negotiations, O’Brien left the show in late January, and Leno returned as host in March. The program’s ratings soon rebounded, but in 2013 Leno announced that he would be stepping down as host the following year.
In February 2014 Jimmy Fallon, who had replaced O’Brien at Late Night, began hosting The Tonight Show, which moved back to New York City. An alumnus of Saturday Night Live, he brought from his Late Night show a focus on comedic sketches rather than the long opening monologue favored by Carson and Leno, and the Roots remained his house band. Fallon’s show had consistently high ratings, particularly among younger viewers, though his generally nonpolitical posture led to a slight decline in viewership after 2016.