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2 months ago | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Mark Malkoff |Bill Brioux
A network late-night host resigning without warning in the middle of a show might seem unthinkable nowadays, but that’s exactly what happened 65 years ago tonight. Not even three years into his tenure as the second host of NBC’s Tonight show, Jack Paar had grown weary of filling over seven hours of airtime each week. Ergo, it took only one run-in with the NBC censors to push him over the edge.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen may have just celebrated its 15th anniversary, but it’s set to start its 22nd season on Bravo tonight. How’s that, exactly? Although most late-night styled shows produce year-long seasons, Bravo initially picked up the free-wheeling WWHL for shorter seasons ranging in length from 22 to 111 episodes.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Mark Malkoff
Gladiator II star Paul Mescal made his Saturday Night Live debut this week alongside first-time musical guest Shaboozey, with the Irish actor’s nearly 23 minutes of screen time amounting to over 36% of the episode’s total running time. Scroll down to see how Mescal stacked up against each of the show’s named performers, including three unannounced guests.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Dennis Perkins |Jed Rosenzweig |Bill Carter
Jimmy Kimmel Live!ABCJason Bateman, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 50 CentThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonNBCKeira Knightley, Christian Slater, Dean EdwardsThe Late Show with Stephen ColbertCBSBilly Crystal, Arooj AftabLate Night with Seth MeyersNBCTaron Egerton, Paris Hilton, Nicole RichieAfter MidnightCBSMichael Urie, Jessica Williams, Luke TennieWatch What Happens LiveBravoChase Lemacks, Cloyce Martin
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Mark Malkoff
As of this week, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show is now the fourth longest-running late-night talk franchise in American history. (As measured in time, not number of episodes.)The show officially made the jump from fifth to fourth this past Monday—exactly 28 years, three months and 20 days after its series premiere on July 22, 1996. Now in fifth place is CBS’s The Late Late Show, which ran from January 9, 1995 to April 27, 2023.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Mark Malkoff
It’s been a full quarter century since Saturday Night Live viewers first met Denise “Zazu” McDenna and Pat “Sully” Sullivan—aka “The Boston Teens.”The underachieving high school sweethearts, played by Rachel Dratch and Jimmy Fallon, were introduced during SNL’s 25th season on November 13, 1999. Fallon was on his second season overall and his first as a repertory player, while Dratch had only joined the featured cast three weeks earlier.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Mark Malkoff
Jimmy Fallon officially has a hit holiday album on his hands. During Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show, Fallon announced that his first holiday album, Holiday Seasoning, debuted at #2 on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart. The 16-track record also ranks third on this week’s Top Album Sales chart with almost 13,000 earned units. When asked to guess which artist kept him from topping the holiday albums chart, several of Fallon’s audience members instinctually named Mariah Carey.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Mark Malkoff
Saturday Night Live viewers first learned what it means to have Spartan spirit 29 years ago today. Classic SNL characters Craig and Arianna–aka the Spartan Cheerleaders–were introduced early in the show’s 21st season on November 11, 1995. Their portrayers, Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri, had just joined the cast at the start of the season. The quickly popular characters debuted at around the same time as Molly Shannon’s Mary Katherine Gallagher and Ferrell and Chris Kattan’s Roxbury Guys.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Mark Malkoff
Bill Burr returned for his second time hosting Saturday Night Live on November 9, 2024, logging a whopping six-plus minutes more screen than his first SNL hosting gig in 2020. Scroll down to see how he stacked up against each of the show’s other named performers this weel, including musical guest Mk.gee and returning SNL alum Dana Carvey.
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Nov 8, 2024 | 
latenighter.com | Matthew Stewart |Mark Malkoff
TV’s most successful multi-platform late-night host began his basic cable era 14 years ago today. The series premiere of TBS’ Conan on November 8, 2010 marked a new act for Conan O’Brien, who famously chose to step away from his short-lived gig at The Tonight Show after NBC execs proposed moving the venerable late-night franchise past midnight to accomodate a new half-hour show starring Jay Leno.
