Hosting History
NBC's Broadway Open House which began in 1950 first demonstrated the potential for late night network programming. The format for The Tonight Show can be traced to a nightly 40 minute local New York show hosted by Allen, originally titled The Knickerbocker Beer Show (after the sponsor) but quickly retitled The Steve Allen Show, which premiered in 1953 on WNBT. Beginning in September 1954, it was renamed Tonight! and shown on the full NBC network. Detailed history of hosts can be found here .
| Host | From | To | Notes | # of episodes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Age | Date | Age | |||
| Steve Allen | September 27, 1954 | 32 | January 25, 1957 | 35 | Tonight Starring Steve Allen | Between all of the hosts from The Tonight Show's debut until the Carson era, 2,000 episodes were made |
| Ernie Kovacs | October 1, 1956 | 37 | January 22, 1957 | 37 | Monday-Tuesday host | |
| Jack Lescoulie | January 28, 1957 | 44 | June 21, 1957 | 44 | Today veteran hosted format switch to news program Tonight! America After Dark | |
| Al "Jazzbo" Collins | June 24, 1957 | 38 | July 26, 1957 | 38 | Replaced Lescoulie, who remained on Today | |
| Jack Paar | July 29, 1957 | 39 | March 30, 1962 | 43 | Format switch to talk show; also called Tonight Starring Jack Paar and Jack Paar Tonight | |
| Various hosts | April 2, 1962 | September 28, 1962 | Interlude between Paar and Carson eras. Temporary hosts included Groucho Marx, Merv Griffin, Bill Cullen and Jerry Lewis. | |||
| Johnny Carson | October 1, 1962 | 36 | May 22, 1992 | 66 | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | 4,531 (not including guest hosted or Weekend Tonight Show/Best of Carson episodes) |
| Jay Leno | May 25, 1992 | 42 | May 29, 2009 | 59 | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | 4,307 |
| Conan O'Brien | June 1, 2009 | 46 | January 22, 2010 | 46 | The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien | 145 |
| Jay Leno | March 1, 2010 | 59 | present | 62 | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | See above |
Read more about this topic: The Tonight Show
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