The Ex-Chief on Late Night's Biggest Busts

[Mark Jeffries]

Some you know (Joan Rivers, Alan Thicke, Sajak), some you've forgotten ("The Wilton North Report," "Last Call"), some you may've thought were never artistically a hit (Big Jaw):

https://www.primetimer.com/barnhart/the-ten-biggest-fails-in-late-night-tv-history

And no Lilly Singh?

[Bob Jersey]

I guess 'cuz he covered her back in June of '21? https://groups.google.com/g/tvornottv/c/bpNuJs5FO6o/m/nNobbGVuAAAJ (link)     B

Mark Jeffries, June 22nd:

[Dave Sikula]

I may be one of the few people who liked Wilton-North. It was rough at first, but I thought it was pretty good by the end.

[Jim Ellwanger]

Among the writers on "The Wilton North Report": Conan O'Brien, Greg Daniels ("The Office"), Paul Sand, and Nell Scovell.

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[M-D November]

Surprised not to see Dennis Miller on that list, although he did manage to run for a few seasons.

[David Bruggeman]

Even Miller's weeknight talk show made it half a year.

David

[Kevin M.]

Allan Havey’s Comedy Central (Comedy Channel?) talk show had a good run

Also worth noting George Lopez’s TBS talk show which was basically kicked to the curb when Conan joined the network 

And not enough is said about Mr. Pete, but I don’t think he ever went national, so I won’t belabor the point 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Mark Jeffries]

Havey started on Comedy Channel, which merged with HA! to become CTV the Comedy Network, and when Canada's CTV threatened to sue, they became Comedy Central, which is where "Night After Night."

Not Havey's fault, but the most publicity came when COM decided to go dark (except for the product of a sponsor which I forget) on Carson's last night.

Mark Jeffries

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[Steve Timko]

So Aaron is counting Leno"s Tonight Show under Helen Kushnick. Could turning the ratings powerhouse into a third place finisher under Fallon count for anything? Playing beer pong while Rome burned -- does misreading the mood of the country count? 

I am a Larry Wilmore fan and I don't see how his show, which I enjoyed, can be lumped in with some truly awful shoes.

The Morten Downey Jr. Show was syndicated and aired at different times, but I think it was targeted for late night and deserves a spot on the list.

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[Mark Jeffries]

On its home station in NY it was prime time at 10 p.m.--WWOR's prime time news was at 8 p.m. back then.  "Thicke of the Night," "Last Call" and "The Magic Hour" were specifically designed for late night and played at those times in NY, LA and Chicago.

And the "Last Call" the ex-Chief referred to was obviously not the Carson Daly show (but was produced by Universal, so NBCU did have the rights to the title).

Mark Jeffries
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[Tom Wolper]

As always with these lists it’s silly to consider them definitive. I think Aaron was taking a stroll down Memory Lane and was looking for a frame to write about some of these less well known shows.

I remember Howard Stern had a late night show on Fridays that never went anywhere. He couldn’t be transgressive on network TV and he was just trying to do a televised version of his radio show (not like what he did on E!, which was bringing a TV crew in to tape his radio show). Of course if someone criticizes Howard online they risk dealing with a troll army.

J Elvis Weinstein was the head writer for Later With Greg Kinnear and he’s talked about it on several podcasts. He said when movie work popped up for Kinnear, they dealt with it by taping several shows in one day so that they could cover for the days Kinnear wasn’t available. Between the burnout of staff and crew from having to put together so many shows in such a short time and Kinnear phoning it in while his mind was on his movie career, the show had no hope.

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[Jim Ellwanger]

You're misremembering WWOR's scheduling -- I happen to have some TV Guides from that era, including the week of the premiere (October 10, 1987), and they had Morton Downey Jr. at 9:00 and news at 10:00. (They had "Entertainment Tonight" at 8:30 and, at least that particular week, "Bosom Buddies" reruns at 8:00. Eventually, they had their version of "Evening Magazine"/"PM Magazine" in the 8:00 time slot.)

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[Mark Jeffries]

Yeah--it was 9 p.m. on WPWR in Chicago, which must've made me think that it was 10 p.m. on WWOR (this was during WWOR's superstation days when it was on cable in Chicago, before the Syndication Exclusivity Rule forced Eastern Microwave to run substitute programming for big chunks of the schedule, including the UPN lineup once that started).

Mark Jeffries

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[Bob Jersey]

Like Downey, Stern's show was based at WWOR, and it was sooooo OTT that original showrunner Dan Forman (he might still be at CBS2NY nowadays) walked away from the property, and possibly the station, never to return.

Of course, a Stern fan has collected slews of classic video moments including all or most of said series on the 'toooooob.    B

Tom Wolper, to Steve Timko and Mark Jeffries, in part, June 23rd: