Contenders to the Throne : The Battle Begins for Carson’s Crown

Johnny Carson is history.

The signature golf swings. The belly laughs from Ed. The loud suits from Doc. The snappy theme song. They’re all gone. When Jay Leno makes his long-awaited debut as the permanent host of “The Tonight Show” this evening, Carson can lie back in bed and join the rest of America at home in front of the TV set.

A new era in late-night television has begun.

“I’m looking for some kind of national anxiety attack, the first night people realize that Johnny’s not coming back,” said late-night competitor Dennis Miller. “He’s become almost like a Pavlovian reaction after 30 years on television--that guy, that song, that announcer. Now all of a sudden he’s not there.”

Miller is among the many competitors, critics and viewers curious to see the unveiling of Leno’s Romanesque “Tonight Show” set and to hear the new eight-man jazz band led by saxophonist Branford Marsalis--if for no other reason than to witness a historic changing of the guard.

This is an opportunity for Carson’s longtime stand-in to stand up and deliver.

And he’d better make it good. Because nipping at Leno’s heels is a pack of hungry talk-show hosts salivating for a bigger bite of the lucrative late-night pie now that Carson has relinquished his grip on the largest piece.

“What’s going to happen now, I think, is that people are going to sample a little bit,” said Donald Hacker, president of Tribune Entertainment, which distributes Miller’s show. To help attract new viewers, Hacker said, Tribune plans to spend between $2 million and $4 million this summer on an advertising campaign for “The Dennis Miller Show.”

“People will be moving around the dial a little more, and that’s an opportunity that just doesn’t come up too often,” he explained.

The biggest opportunity may belong to Arsenio Hall, the self-crowned prince of late night, who has been a solid No. 2 behind Carson. “The Arsenio Hall Show” burst into syndication four years ago and established an immediate presence--not by siphoning off Carson’s audience but by bringing in a new generation of younger viewers who weren’t watching late-night television. Hall has outlasted at least a half-dozen shows that have come and gone since.

Now Hall hopes to climb into Carson’s throne with a multimillion-dollar promotional campaign of his own this summer.

“It’s definitely not business as usual,” said Kerry McCluggage, president of Paramount Television Group, which syndicates “Arsenio.” “We, and I use the royal we, are really gearing up for this, especially Arsenio. We’ve got plans for the show and a strong promotional campaign. I think (Carson) viewers are going to be up for grabs. And we hope to grab our share of them.”

The competition is, indeed, heating up in what was perceived even before Carson’s retirement as an underdeveloped late-night arena. Last week, rumors were floated of an unhappy David Letterman thinking of moving to ABC and Dana Carvey being considered to fill his post at NBC. Whoopi Goldberg is set to join the tussle this fall with a syndicated talk show, and Chevy Chase will follow her next year when Fox ventures back into late night.

“The field is going to open up. It has to,” said Gary Gannaway, chairman of Genesis Entertainment, which will roll out the half-hour “Whoopi” in September. “Because ‘The Tonight Show’ is a different show. It’s no longer the ‘Tonight Show.’ That doesn’t mean it can’t be as successful or more successful. But it’s a different show and a different show spells risk, and risk creates opportunity.”

For now, however, it’s Leno’s spotlight. Hall and Miller are both taking tonight off--with Miller in repeats all week.

“I think because of the change, the audience is going to focus right now on Leno,” said Jamie Kellner, president of Fox Broadcasting Co. “And they’re going to take a look at him, and see what he’s got, and see if he wears well. For us to go in now with a new show and try to compete with that would be a mistake. Let him show his stuff, and see if he can hold up. If he doesn’t, there’s going to be a lot of viewers looking for an alternative.”

Leno is starting off with a bold stunt, broadcasting his show live all week to the East Coast (but tape delayed here, as it normally is throughout the country). The reason, according to NBC, is that the network is carrying NBA playoff games Tuesday through Friday, and Leno can do live promos for his show throughout the games while engaging in friendly promotional patter at halftime with NBA host Bob Costas.

“I think a lot of syndicators would like station managers to believe that, starting (tonight), the late-night audience is completely up for grabs, and we just don’t believe it,” said Rick Ludwin, NBC’s senior vice president of specials, variety programs and late night. “We think the transition from Johnny Carson to Jay Leno has been about as carefully introduced and choreographed as any in the history of television.”

Leno and Marsalis will work off each other in the tradition of Letterman and Paul Shaffer. They have both publicly expressed their desire to inject some freshness and vitality into “The Tonight Show,” which built up a solid core of older viewers under Carson’s reign. Some of the less conventional guests scheduled include the hard-rock group Black Crowes (on Wednesday), New York performance artists Blue Man Group and political humorist P.J. O’Rourke.

The stylish new set Leno will operate from is adorned with pillars and arches and mood lighting. His heavy wooden desk and three guest chairs rest before a mural of a deep blue Los Angeles coastline at dusk. There’s even toy a train set and a little motorcycle with lights that drives up and down the Pacific Coast Highway for Leno’s amusement.

And there will be other change-ups. To keep viewers’ attention on the show, the producers plan to bring in Eagle Brand snacks spokesmen Tony Randall and Jack Klugman on Tuesday for a live, in-studio commercial--something McMahon used to do years ago. Leno’s writers, meanwhile, are working up comedy skits, including a game-show parody scheduled for Friday called “Political Jeopardy” with Leno playing Alex Trebek.

The feeling among competitors is that all these changes are designed to compete for Hall’s younger viewers at the risk of losing Carson’s established audience.

“That certainly is what I’m hearing,” Paramount’s McCluggage said. “Nobody has seen the show yet, but that’s the impression you get. Rather than remaining as close as possible to ‘The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson’ and adjusting it to Jay Leno, it seems they’re trying to go in a different direction.”

NBC’s Ludwin, however, denied the suggestion that “The Tonight Show” is focusing on younger viewers, a shift that the network has recently made with its prime-time programming lineup in response to advertisers.

“What I would say to that is we want as many viewers of all ages to watch the show,” Ludwin said. “I think ‘The Tonight Show’ will certainly reflect Jay’s interests from now on. There will be lots of different guests who will appear. But I don’t see it as being some radical change. We’re just taking this tremendous legacy Johnny has left and bringing it to the next step.”