For thirty years, from October 1, 1962, to May 22, 1992, Johnny Carson presided over American popular culture from the 11:30 P.M. throne of “The Tonight Show.” At its peak, the show was regularly watched by seventeen million people. (The current late-night ratings winner, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” averages about 2.5 million viewers.) Together with his producers, Carson developed the format that network late-night talk shows would employ from then on: a monologue of topical jokes followed by a desk piece, and then a mix of guests and the occasional skit to round out the night. His monologue, which moved like a newspaper from major stories to sports, the arts, and human interest, and which never contained more than a few jokes on any one subject, became the template for all late-night opening monologues that followed.
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