# but...it's...The Tonight Show!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-its-the-tonight-show/271697>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 28, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-its-the-tonight-show/271697 "2004-10-28T17:48:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-its-the-tonight-show/271697/1 "2004-10-28T17:48:13Z")

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ok, question.

What’s the big deal about being the host of The Tonight Show, as opposed to having any other late night show with any variation of “at night” in the title? So Steve Allen and Johnny Carson _used_ to host it…_that’s_ enough reason to tune in now? I mean, doesn’t the HOST make the show, not the name? Back around 1992, there was this huge deal that both Letterman and Leno wanted to host The Tonight Show next, and despite making his own show to compete with it, Letterman came off as the loser for not having the “coveted” seat there. And now it’s a big deal that Conan O’Brien is going to follow the Tonight Show legacy? Would it have been any different if O’Brien were to take over Letterman’s show instead (which at the least, would help the chances that he’d stay in NYC where he belongs)

oh btw, was Ed Sullivan the host of The Tonight Show, or was that something else? It seems like 40 years later, people are still praising his show.

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**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-its-the-tonight-show/271697/2 "2004-10-28T17:50:30Z")

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Because it’s the premier late night talk show.

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-its-the-tonight-show/271697/3 "2004-10-28T18:51:53Z")

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> [@fusoya](#):
>
> oh btw, was Ed Sullivan the host of The Tonight Show, or was that something else? It seems like 40 years later, people are still praising his show.

His show started in '48 as “The Toast of the Town”. The thing about Ed Sullivan is that he was on once a week for 23 years and he put the _variety_ in variety show. For an hour on any given Sunday night you could watch acrobats, opera singers, jugglers, pop singers, impressionists, and comedians.

Had CBS executives not lumped “The Ed Sullivan Show” in with what they termed lowbrow programming when they cleaned house in 1971, the show probably would have outlasted Ed.