Here’s Joannie, Set to Challenge ‘Here’s Johnny’

Comedian Joan Rivers, who has been a frequent guest host for Johnny Carson on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” will challenge Carson with her own talk show this fall, the Fox Broadcasting Co. announced today.

Rivers will host a one-hour, five-day-a-week program, which will kick off the Fox Broadcasting Network’s plans to gradually introduce a fourth network of regularly scheduled series to compete with ABC, CBS and NBC. It will start at 11 p.m. Eastern time, half an hour before Carson. The new network’s shows will be carried on KTTV (Channel 11) in Los Angeles.

“I want to thank NBC a thousand times,” Rivers said. “I am grateful to NBC for the three years I had on the ‘Tonight’ show, but they should thank me, too. My ratings were good. And they were better than the regular host.”

Carson did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The last major talk show competition for Carson came with the syndicated “Thicke of the Night” in 1983, which lasted less than a year.