t, and at that time the program started at 11:15pm and extended to 1:00am. The Paar era was relatively stormy, so much so that one night Paar walked off the show. Paar was a very emotional man and would frequently feud with his critics in public. It has been speculated that this was one of the reasons why he had such a large audience:
While the public debated what Jack Paar was really like, intimates knew that what you saw was what you got. Though he hated his emotionalism, he couldn't master it--yet that added to his appeal. Viewers stayed with the show long past bedtime because at 12:55 A.M. they just might be witness to a nervous breakdown.
Johnny Carson took over the show in 1963 and would remain for 29 years, becoming the king of late night television for all that period and destroying a good deal of competition in the process. The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson would also become a major profit center for the network. Even in a time of falling profits, as in 1979, NBC reported that the show continued to contribute more each year on a percentage basis. In 1979, NBC earned a pre-tax profit of $105.6 million, down from $121.3 million in 1978. Trade sources estimated that The Tonight Show accounted for 17 percent of the total revenue for the network. Because of the potential for high revenues at the late hour, the other networks long desired a program of their own that would serve them as Carson was serving NBC, and from time to time they would attempt to challenge Carson's lead with late night talk shows of their own. All of them failed. The first was The Joey Bishop Show from 1967 to 1969, which had a rating of 3.7 to Carson's 7.3. The Merv Griffin Show from CBS from 1969 to 1972 had a 4.5 rating to Carson's 7.5. Abc tried The Dick Cavett Show from 1973 to 1974, and he achieved only a 3.4 rating to Carson's 7.9. CBS would try again in 1989 with The Pat Sajak Show which disappeared after gaining only a ...