The Pat Sajak Show
Encyclopedia
The Pat Sajak Show is an American late-night television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....

 which aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 from January 9, 1989 to April 13, 1990.

Cast

The show was hosted by Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...

, best known as host of the game show Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...

. In order to do the talk show, Sajak left the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 daytime version of Wheel, but remained the host of the syndicated nighttime version.

Sajak's announcer and sidekick on the show was Dan Miller
Dan Miller (television journalist/personality)
Zachariah Daniel Miller III , commonly known as Dan Miller, was an American television personality who grew up in Augusta, Georgia....

, his friend and former colleague from their time working together on weekend newscasts at WSM-TV
WSMV-TV
WSMV-TV, virtual channel 4, is the NBC-affiliated television station serving the Nashville, Tennessee area. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 10. Owned by Meredith Corporation, its transmitter and tower are located adjacent to its studios on Knob Road in west Nashville, south of...

 in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, in the mid-1970s. The in-studio band was led by jazz musician Tom Scott
Tom Scott (musician)
Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...

.

Pre-production

Sajak was hired by Michael Brockman, the CBS vice-president for daytime, children's and late-night programming, who wanted to have a late-night talk show established when Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...

 eventually announced his retirement. Brockman had known Sajak since the two worked for NBC in the late 1970s. At that time, Brockman had approached Sajak, a weatherman, about doing a game show, but Sajak rejected the idea, saying what he really wanted to do was get a talk show. Brockman kept him in mind over the years, and at a lunch in 1986 he reminded Sajak about the conversation. Sajak confirmed his interest in a talk show, and Brockman went to work getting approvals from his management for the plan and getting network affiliate
Network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the television program or radio program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network...

s to commit to the show.

CBS spent more than $4 million for a new sound stage for the show at its Television City
CBS Television City
CBS Television City is a television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of North Fairfax Avenue...

 studios located above the four studios on the first floor. A staff of more than 30 was hired, and Sajak signed a guaranteed two-year contract for what was reportedly $60,000 a week.

In an interview held a month before the show premiered, Sajak said he was "not looking to raise the level of TV"; he summarized the elements planned for the show, a plan that "steal[s] liberally" from talk shows past and present.

Premiere

Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...

 was the show's first guest; his interview was followed by one with Joan Van Ark
Joan Van Ark
Joan Van Ark is an American actress, most notable for her role as Valene Ewing, which she originated on the CBS series Dallas and continued for thirteen seasons on its spin-off, Knots Landing...

, a performance by and brief interview with The Judds
The Judds
The Judds were an American country music duo composed of Naomi Judd and her daughter, Wynonna Judd. Signed to RCA Records in 1983, the duo released six studio albums between then and 1991. One of the most successful acts in country music history, The Judds won five Grammy Awards for Best Country...

, an interview with the outgoing commissioner of baseball
Commissioner of Baseball
The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive of Major League Baseball and its associated minor leagues. Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts...

, Peter Ueberroth
Peter Ueberroth
Peter Victor Ueberroth is an American executive. He served as the sixth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1984 to 1989. He was recently the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee; he was replaced by Larry Probst in October 2008....

 (interrupted briefly when Chase, who followed late-night talk show conventions of the time and remained seated on stage during the show's other guest appearances, raised his hand and asked if he could go to the bathroom). There was an interview (with Michael Gross
Michael Gross (actor)
Michael Gross is an American television, movie, and stage actor who plays both comedic and dramatic roles. His most notable roles are as the father Steven Keaton from Family Ties and the Graboid hunter Burt Gummer from the Tremors franchise.-Early life:Gross was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son...

), and then the show ended with a performance by stand-up comic Dennis Wolfberg
Dennis Wolfberg
Dennis Wolfberg was an American stand up comedian and actor.Wolfberg became a fixture on "The Tonight Show" and starred in an HBO special in early 1992...

.

Format

The show's set was similar to that of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....

. Its format emulated Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...

's model, featuring a monologue, comedy bits, interviews with celebrities, and performances by musicians and comedians. The Pat Sajak Show began as a ninety-minute talk show, but was reduced to sixty minutes in October 1989. CBS executives said the show was shortened because the late-night talk show format was better suited for a sixty-minute time slot.

Rush Limbaugh

Two weeks before The Pat Sajak Show was canceled, on March 30, 1990, radio host Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...

 made headlines when he guest hosted the program, and, in a departure from its regular format, entered the audience to get a positive response about the veto of a bill in Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

 allowing for abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 on which he had just commented. Directly after announcing that the bill was vetoed, Limbaugh went to the first woman who stood up and was cheering the loudest. Limbaugh was surprised and unprepared when the woman denounced Limbaugh's anti-abortion statements earlier in the show, stating "women's lives are more important than any potato" and "You don't know what it's about. You'll never have a baby, you'll never be pregnant. You'll never have an abortion." After a verbal confrontation with the angry woman in the audience, followed by an angry man shouting, "We are gonna be wherever you are and we're gonna denounce and expose you," Limbaugh addressed the camera and stated that he went into the audience in an attempt to show the viewing public that there was an underlying prejudice against him. Due to heckling, Limbaugh decided to conduct his interview with Sydney Biddle Barrows
Sydney Biddle Barrows
Sydney Biddle Barrows is an American businesswoman who became known as an escort-service owner while using the stage name Sheila Devin and later became known as the "Mayflower Madam"...

 in another studio.

After a commercial break, Limbaugh attempted to address the topic of affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...

, but was heckled again by several male audience members wearing ACT UP t-shirts, calling him a "murderer" before he could make a point. Limbaugh sat silently with the camera focused on him for nearly a minute while audience members continued shouting phrases such as "You want people to die!" Limbaugh responded with, "I am not responsible for your behavior."

After another break, Limbaugh returned and conducted the final segment after the audience had been cleared. He stated that the audience was not "evicted from the studio" or "forcibly restrained from doing anything they did" and gave CBS credit for handling the situation in the manner it did.

Limbaugh later claimed the dissident audience members were planted
Shill
A shill, plant or stooge is a person who helps a person or organization without disclosing that he or she has a close relationship with that person or organization...

 by the show's producers as a publicity stunt
Publicity stunt
A publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs...

.

Cancellation

During its final weeks, Sajak worked four days per week, while guest hosts took the reins on Fridays. Sajak, while interviewing Limbaugh a decade later on Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....

, said the show "was going so well that they actually auditioned replacements for me on the air." Limbaugh all but confirmed Sajak's suspicion when he responded with, "I don't know if it was necessarily an audition for that slot, by the way, but I know that they were auditioning talent for various things."

On April 9, 1990, CBS announced the cancellation due to low ratings, which were generally half the level of Carson's,
and were further divided by The Arsenio Hall Show
The Arsenio Hall Show
The Arsenio Hall Show is an American variety/talk show that aired late weeknights in syndication from January 3, 1989 to May 27, 1994. The show was created and hosted by comedian/actor Arsenio Hall.- Background :...

, which had been launched in syndication the same month as Sajak's show. The final show was hosted by comedian Paul Rodríguez
Paul Rodríguez
Paul Rodriguez is a Mexican-American stand-up comedian and actor.-Personal life:Rodriguez was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, México to Mexican agriculture ranchers.. His family migrated to East Los Angeles, where he enlisted in the military; he was stationed in Iceland and Duluth, Minnesota...

. Some affiliates delayed the show or never carried the program at all, choosing to air sitcom reruns or syndicated shows.

CBS restored its CBS Late Night
The CBS Late Movie
The CBS Late Movie was a CBS television series from the 1970s and 1980s, that ran in most American television markets from 11:30 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. or later, on weeknights...

block of movies and reruns, which The Pat Sajak Show replaced earlier, and would not program another late-night talk show until the Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...

debuted in August 1993.

Limbaugh would begin a run in syndicated television in 1992, following a similar format to the format he used guest-hosting The Pat Sajak Show. The show aired from 1992 to 1996.
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