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Late night television
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Late night television is the block of television programming airing after 10:00 pm and usually through 2:00 am. Traditionally, this type of programming airs after the late local news and features a particular genre of programming that falls somewhere between a variety show and a talk show.
lar shows of the late night talk show genre include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Late Show with David Letterman, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
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Encyclopedia
Late night television is the block of television programming airing after 10:00 pm and usually through 2:00 am. Traditionally, this type of programming airs after the late local news and features a particular genre of programming that falls somewhere between a variety show and a talk show.
Popular shows of the late night talk show genre include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Late Show with David Letterman, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Famous former hosts include Johnny Carson of The Tonight Show, Arsenio Hall of The Arsenio Hall Show, Tom Snyder of Tomorrow and The Late Late Show, Steve Allen, the father of the late night talk show and founder of Tonight (now known as "The Tonight Show"), Merv Griffin and Dick Cavett, early competitors with Carson, and Jack Paar, the man who followed Steve Allen as host of the Tonight Show and who is responsible for setting the standards for the genre.
In the United States late-night shows per network usually have one being taped from New York, and one from Los Angeles. Most "late night" shows are taped late in the afternoon (with the exception of Jimmy Kimmel Live). The fact that this limits accurate coverage of the latest news cycle is sometimes the source of ironic humor.
Three prominent late night only cable/satellite channels currently air in the United States: Nick at Nite, a collection of mostly sitcom reruns from the previous decades that airs in Nickelodeon's channel slot between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. each night, Jetix, a soon-to-be dissolved block of action shows that airs on Toon Disney from 7pm - 11am with a few cuts in between, and Adult Swim, a block of animated programming targeted toward young adults that shares time with the Cartoon Network channel slot each night.
The Big Three major networks currently begin their late night programming at 11:35 p.m. each night, with the exception of Fox, which airs only one day of late night programming (Saturday) starting at 11:00 p.m. This is a half-hour to one hour after the end of prime time to allow local stations to air newscasts, and most stations (with a few exceptions) do. Some time in 2009, however, NBC will move all of its programming up, eliminating an hour of prime time and giving the 10:00 hour to The Jay Leno Show. In turn, Conan O'Brien will replace Leno as host of The Tonight Show at 11:35 and Jimmy Fallon will replace O'Brien as host of Late Night at 12:35, leaving the 11:00 slot to local news and the remaining late night programs (Poker After Dark and Last Call with Carson Daly) as is.
Typical format
These shows often follow the same canonical format:
House bands
Most shows in this genre have an in-house band that plays musical interludes. Popular late night band leaders in the U.S. include Paul Shaffer, leader of The CBS Orchestra on The Late Show with David Letterman; Max Weinberg, leader of The Max Weinberg 7 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien; and Kevin Eubanks, leader of the Tonight Show Band. Usually the band leader is a major part of the show, and the band leader and host often exchange playful banter during the monologue and comedy segments; the band leader has thus taken over the part of being the host's sidekick, which in the past was played by Ed McMahon and Andy Richter, among others. Of the current late night talk show band leaders who play this role, Paul Shaffer is well-known for being a straight man to David Letterman. However, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Max Weinberg rarely speaks during the show, and his interactions with O'Brien are often short and awkward -- a recurring gag on the show, and Kevin Eubanks is often the butt of Leno's jokes, particularly regarding drug-related stories.
Announcers
Often, the show's announcer is also a major part of the show. Famous announcers include Gene Rayburn and Hugh Downs (both from the early years of The Tonight Show), Ed McMahon from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Edd Hall and John Melendez from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Bill Wendell and Alan Kalter from Late Show with David Letterman, and Don Pardo from Saturday Night Live. These announcers often have significant career accomplishments outside of their particular shows.
Non-late night talk shows
Not all late night talk shows air late at night; for example, The Ellen DeGeneres Show follows the format of a late night talk show, but airs in the daytime. Similar shows included The Mike Douglas Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, The View, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Tyra Banks Show and The Wayne Brady Show, but many of these shows are targeted to the female audience, in contrast to the real and more popular late-night shows, which target the male audience.
There are also some daytime talk shows that air in late night, such as The Jerry Springer Show (because of the program's adult content). Most of the time however, daytime talk shows air in late night involuntarily because of low ratings in their original daytime slots, no room on their station's schedule in an appropriate timeslot, or to fill time otherwise taken up by infomercials or sitcom reruns.
A brief influx of game shows began to fill the late night airwaves in the mid-1980s, such as Tom Kennedy's nighttime Price Is Right, The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime, and High Rollers; these were shows that were targeted for prime time access slots but found that Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! had already cornered the market for that time slot. Virtually all of those game shows were cancelled after one year on the air.
Still other late night programs break the standard format; most notably, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is a parody of an evening news program, while The Colbert Report parodies political talk shows. Fox News Channel's Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld uses a roundtable format which has a mix of news discussion mixed with comedy, although roundtable is only used in the descriptionary sense; some guests appear on the program via satellite, while a regular on the show appears from another part of the Fox News studios.
See also
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