Gimbel, Howard V., and Ellen E. Anderson Penno.
LASIK Complications: Trends and Techniques.3ded.
Thorofare, N.J.: SLACK, 2004.
Car yn E. Neumann
See also Laparoscopic surgery; Medicine; Science
and technology.
Late night television
Definition Talk and sketch shows that appeared
on network and cable television after 11:30p.m.
With the rise of cable television, increased syndication of
late night shows, and the retirement of Johnny Carson, sud-
denly late night was a diverse field providing viewers more
choices in late night programming.
On May 22, 1992, Johnny Carson aired his lastTonight
Showafter nearly thirty years of late night ratings
dominance on the National Broadcasting Company
(NBC). On May 25, Jay Leno replaced him as host
ofThe Tonight Show. Leno’s selection as host of the
show was controversial, as many critics felt the show
should have gone to David Letterman, the host of
the show following Carson,Late Night with David
Letterman. Instead, Letterman moved to the Colum-
bia Broadcasting System (CBS) to have his own 11:30
p.m.show, which initially beat Leno in the ratings
and continued to have strong ratings
throughout the decade. Another ini-
tial problem with Leno’s version of
The Tonight Showwas that his execu-
tive producer, Helen Kushnick,
would get into booking wars with
other shows: banning any talent
from appearing onThe Tonight Show
if they appeared on another late
night show. While this eventually led
to her firing, the booking wars hurt
Leno’s reputation among other
late night hosts, such as Arsenio
Hall. When Letterman left NBC, the
network replaced him with then-
unknown comic Conan O’Brien,
and while he struggled at first, his
ratings stabilized by the end of the
decade. Letterman also developed a
12:30A.M.show for CBS to go up
against O’Brien, first featuring Tom Snyder, with
Craig Kilborn taking over in 1999.
Syndicated Late Night For many years, syndicated
shows had tried to rival Johnny Carson, but all had
failed. The first to have success against Carson was
The Arsenio Hall Show, which premiered in 1989. Fea-
turing the first African American late night host, the
show appeared hipper than Carson’s and appealed
to a younger audience. In 1992, Hall scored a coup
when presidential candidate Bill Clinton appeared
on the show. An overwhelming response led to the
trend of political candidates appearing on late night
television.The Arsenio Hall Showdid not maintain
long-term success, however, and ended in 1994.
Still, the success of Hall’s show encouraged other
syndicated efforts, such as the short-livedDennis
Miller Show(1992),The Jon Stewart Show(1993-1995),
The Keenan Ivor y Wayans Show(1997-1998),The Magic
Hour(1998-1999; Magic Johnson), andVibe(1997;
hosted by Sinbad). None of these syndicated shows
had the success of Hall’s show.
Cable Television With more households subscrib-
ing to cable television, a new outlet for late night
television emerged. Many of these shows took on a
political bent: fromThe Chris Rock Show(1997-2000)
on Home Box Office (HBO), to Comedy Central’s
The Daily ShowandPolitically Incorrect. Comedy Cen-
tral began airingPolitically Incorrectin 1993, and the
show, which mimicked the Sunday morning pundit504 Late night television The Nineties in America
Talk-show host Johnny Carson, right, and the show’s announcer, Ed McMahon, shake
hands during their final episode ofThe Tonight Showon May 22, 1992.(AP/
Wide World Photos)