Variety Show - Contemporary U.S. Variety Shows

Contemporary U.S. Variety Shows

Variety shows began to fade from popularity in the early 1970s, when research began to show that variety shows appealed to an older audience that was less appealing to advertisers; over the course of the so-called "rural purge", several of the early era variety shows were canceled, though newer ones (fewer in number nonetheless) continued to be created and broadcast for several years after. By the late 1970s, variety shows had mostly ended production, and by the early 1980s, the few new variety shows being produced were of remarkably poor quality (see, for instance, the infamous Pink Lady and Jeff), hastening the format's demise. Since Pink Lady, only a few traditional variety shows have been attempted on television programs: Dolly (starring Dolly Parton), which ran for 23 episodes on the ABC television network during the 1987–'88 season; a revival of The Carol Burnett Show, which was broadcast by CBS-TV for nine episodes in 1991; and the first incarnation of The Wayne Brady Show, which was telecast on ABC-TV in August 2001.

By the 21st century, the variety show format had fallen out of fashion, due largely to changing tastes and the fracturing of media audiences (caused by the proliferation of cable and satellite television) that makes a multiple-genre variety show impractical. Even reruns of variety shows have generally not been particularly widespread; TV Land telecast briefly some variety shows (namely The Ed Sullivan Show and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour) upon its beginning in 1996, but within a few years, those reruns stopped. Similarly, Country Music Television held the rights to Hee Haw but telecast very few episodes. (The current rights holder RFD-TV has been more prominent in its telecasts of the show). A notable exception is The Lawrence Welk Show, which has been telecast continually in reruns on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) since 1986. The Spanish language variety show Sabado Gigante, which began in 1962, and then moved from Chile to the United States in 1986, continues to produce and broadcast new episodes. It is shown on Univision as of 2012.

However, though the format had faded in popularity in prime time, it thrived in late night. The variety shows of this daypart eventually evolved into late-night talk shows, which combined variety entertainment with talk show elements (mainly celebrity interviews). (The Emmy Awards organization considers the two genres to be related closely enough that it awards the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series to any of these types of show.)

Although only one network (NBC, with its The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and later Late Night with David Letterman) had a successful late-night talk show until 1992, the field greatly expanded beginning with Carson's retirement and the controversial selection of Jay Leno as Tonight’s new host. Within ten years, all of the "Big Three" networks, along with several cable outlets, had late night variety talk shows being shown nightly. (NBC-TV, in a cost-cutting move, attempted to bring Leno's program to prime time as The Jay Leno Show in 2009, but many affiliates threatened to drop the program after local news ratings suffered, forcing him back to late night within four months of the prime time debut.) Sketch comedy series such as Saturday Night Live, In Living Color, Almost Live!, MADtv and SCTV also contain variety show elements, particularly musical performances and comedy sketches (though only the first of these remains telecast as of 2010). The most obvious difference between shows such as Saturday Night Live and traditional variety shows is the lack of a single lead host (or hosts) and a large ensemble cast. SNL has used different guest hosts ever since its inception.

The variety show format also continues in the form of the telethon, which features several hours of variety entertainment. The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon is one of the best known national telethons, and local telethons also still exist (one of the few times local stations produce non-news entertainment programming themselves). These, too, are losing popularity; over the course of 2011 and 2012 the Lewis telethon was cut from over 21 hours to three as a response to declining returns while Lewis himself was controversially removed from the telethon, and only a handful of long-established local telethons remain.

In 2004, ABC's The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour attempted to revive the prime-time variety hour as a special for today's generation. It was followed by Nick & Jessica's Family Christmas in early December of that year, though no further specials would be produced after that due to the couple's divorce. NBC's Rosie Live did not fare so well: the series's pilot episode was telecast the day before Thanksgiving Day in 2008 and, after being panned by critics, it was not purchased. In December 2009, the singer Carrie Underwood made her first attempt at a Christmas variety special on FOX-TV.

Fox's Osbournes Reloaded, a variety show featuring the family of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, and was canceled after only one episode had been telecast in 2009. More than two dozen affiliates refused to telecast the first episode of the show. This series had been slated for a six-episode run.

America's Got Talent, which has broadcast on NBC-TV since 2006, and it combines variety entertainment with reality television in an elimination contest. There has been success with this format, regularly ranking among the most watched summer series in the U.S.A.

The success of this TV program has spawned an international conglomerate. Other shows that have had varying degrees of success combining the two formats was Star Search, which had a run in the 1980s in syndication and a run on CBS in the early 2000s (decade) during the reality television boom, and The Gong Show, which reached its peak in the 1970s, but it has had occasional revivals since then.