Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, The – Nostalgia Central

1 9 8 6 – 1 9 8 8 (USA)
178 x episodes

Joan Rivers was the first performer signed to the fledgling Fox network, which had high hopes that a late-night talk show hosted by the quick-witted comedienne would prove to be an auspicious inaugural series.

After all, she had been “permanent guest host” of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since 1983, and that show’s ratings had held their own (and sometimes improved) during her guest tenures.

A $2 million, 420-seat studio was built to Rivers’s specifications, and the show was produced by Joan’s husband, Edgar Rosenberg.

Determined to appeal to a younger audience than Carson’s Tonight Show, Joan’s guests included Cher, Elton John, David Lee Roth, Pee-wee Herman, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Simmons, Wendy O Williams, Suzanne Somers, James Woods, Ted Danson, Drew Barrymore, Elliott Gould, Bronson Pinchot, Lucille Ball, Lily Tomlin, Stephanie Beacham, Lynda Carter, Kate Jackson, Larry Hagman, Johnny Cash, Mike Tyson, George Michael, Kenny Rogers, Nancy Reagan, Belinda Carlisle, Jackie Collins, Run DMC, Air Supply, Alyssa Milano, Michael J Fox, Chris Rock, Morgan Fairchild, Frankie Avalon, Oingo Boingo, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Eartha Kitt, Guns N’ Roses, Morrissey, Crowded House, The cast of Batman, The cast of Gilligan’s Island and Dame Edna Everage.

Initial ratings were encouraging, but they had dropped sharply by the end of October. Since Fox had promised advertisers a rating of 5, but the show was now averaging less than half of that, Fox had to offer “makegoods,” or subsequent free spots, to its sponsors.

Relations between Rivers’ staff and network executives quickly deteriorated, with constant battles over expenses, how many guests to book for each show, whether the stage crew should be fed, and even over a Pepsi machine installed at the studio.

Ratings remained low, and in April 1987, Fox announced that it was pulling the plug on the show. The final show aired on 15 May 1987.

Edgar Rosenberg, who had been in poor health, took his own life in August, while on a business trip to Philadelphia.

After Rivers’s departure, Fox briefly experimented with having a different guest host each night; that idea soon proved unworkable, and various celebrities then took longer turns. Among the brightest was a young black comic named Arsenio Hall, whose stewardship saw ratings improve slightly.

By that time, however, Fox was already committed to a replacement series, The Wilton North Report. When that disastrous show was axed after less than a month, reruns of The Late Show returned.

A new version of The Late Show debuted on 10 March 1988, with Ross Shafer as host in April, but Fox shelved the entire late-night talk show idea six months later.

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