From Conan O’Brien to Chevy Chase: 8 Talk Shows That Vanished Shockingly Fast

The landscape of American talk shows is littered in history: Late-night programs like The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show have dominated airways for decades and made icons out of hosts like Johnny Carson,David Letterman and Jay Leno, among others.

But not all talk shows have had the benefit of that kind of longevity and legacy — some were cancelled after a few months while others barely made it to a couple of weeks, despite being helmed by big names like Joan Rivers, Chevy Chase and Conan O’Brien. Here are eight talk shows that seemingly vanished overnight, due to less-than-stellar ratings, schedule snafus and some good old-fashioned behind-the-scenes beef.

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8 Talk Shows That Seemingly Vanished Overnight

The Chevy Chase Show

Chevy Chase was already a comedy icon and movie star courtesy of Saturday Night Live, Caddyshack and the National Lampoon’s Vacation films by the time he decided to take on the world of late-night television with The Chevy Chase Show, which premiered on FOX in September 1993.

However, the talk show barely lasted more than a month on air; it was widely panned by critics (“Nervous and totally at sea, Chase tried everything, succeeded at nothing,” Richard Zoglin wrote in TIME magazine) and suffered lower ratings than competitors like Late Show with David Letterman, and so it was cancelled after just six weeks. 

Chase discussed the show’s failure in the CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, per Variety: “I never took anybody’s advice about how to do a talk show. I can do it, I kept thinking,” he said in the doc. “It was hideous. I just didn’t really have a sense of what you do on a talk show.”

Related: The Incident That Caused Chevy Chase’s Lifetime Ban From ‘Saturday Night Live’

The Dennis Miller Show

A fellow Saturday Night Live alum and former Weekend Update anchor, comedian Dennis Miller followed up his departure from Studio 8H with his own foray into late-night: On January 20, 1992, he launched the weekly The Dennis Miller Show, which was marked by an alternative and often absurdist take on the classic TV form.

Though the show was meant to rival those by Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall and the like, Miller’s talk show was unable to build a significant audience, especially due to several confounding timeslot switch-ups and purported difficulties booking guests. Despite considerable efforts from Miller and co. — including announcing a 1-900 phone number on air for fans to call and demand the series’ continuation — The Dennis Miller Show was cancelled after just seven months.

The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers

The dramatic lore surrounding The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers lasted far longer than the talk show itself. The first television program broadcast on the then-new FOX network, the late-night show was hosted by comedy icon Joan Rivers, a bit of television revenge after being passed over by NBCas Johnny Carson’s replacement on The Tonight Show. 

Alas, that infamous off-camera beef didn’t manifest into major ratings and viewership for Rivers’ show quickly sagged after its October 1986 debut. Only seven months later, simmering tensions between the host and network executives boiled over: Rivers’ husband and executive producer, Edgar Rosenberg, was barred from the show by FOX and Rivers herself was fired in May 1987 after just 13 weeks, with Arsenio Hall coming in to replace her. 

Joan’s final show, which featured guests Chris Rock, Howie Mandeland Pee-wee Herman, saw the set vandalized with toilet paper, slime, and shaving cream.

Related: From Johnny Carson to Fashion Police: Joan Rivers Through the Years

Thicke of the Night

Debuting during the 1983-1984 TV season in first-run syndication, Thicke of the Night was helmed by a pre-Growing PainsAlan Thicke, who already had talk-show experience (albeit of the daytime sort) back in his home country of Canada with the popular program The Alan Thicke Show, which ran from 1980 to 1983.

Sadly, Thicke’s primetime follow-up didn’t have the same kind of success — the 90-minute show simply couldn’t compete with the late-night juggernaut that was (and still is) The Tonight Show, especially with Thicke of the Night‘s ambitious and then-unconventional mix of musical numbers and sketch comedy alongside the more traditional talk-show format. “‘Thicke of the Night’ was an unproducible, unmanageable experiment,” the host told TV Guide back in 1988. “I don’t think you’ll see anything like it tried for a while.”

Luckily for Thicke, he followed up that failure with American stardom viaGrowing Pains only a year later.

The Magic Hour

An icon on the basketball court, legendary point guard Magic Johnson tried to score with his own late-night show, The Magic Hour, which premiered on June 8, 1998, on the FOX network. However, the show was widely panned by critics, many of them citing the athlete’s apparent awkwardness as an emcee and lack of natural chemistry with his guests.

One such critic was veteran broadcaster-slash-comedian Howard Stern, who regularly roasted Johnson’s series on his own morning program, The Howard Stern Show. In a bit of a ratings gimmick, Johnson invited Stern onto The Magic Hour, but the buzz drummed up by the appearance was only temporary and the talk show was cancelled after just eight weeks.

Related: Howard Stern Reportedly Sued by Former Assistant After Firing Over ‘Hostile Work Environment’

Busy Tonight

Best known for roles in series like Freaks and Geeks, Dawson’s Creek, Cougar Town and Girls5Eva, actress Busy Philipps flexed a different type of TV-star muscle as the host of the E! talk show Busy Tonight.

The show tried to differentiate itself from the more buttoned-up, male-dominated late-night landscape, with Philipps positioned as “everyone’s favorite unfiltered Hollywood best friend giving her hilarious and outspoken opinions on the latest pop culture stories and trending topics, with candid celebrity guest interviews and original comedic segments,” per the official logline.

However, despite wrangling in high-profile guests likeJulia Roberts, Tina Fey, Kim Kardashian and more, Busy Tonight couldn’t escape negative reviews and a timeslot pushback. Airing since October 2018, the program was cancelled by E! in May 2019.

Related: She Calls Her Canceled Talk Show ‘Terrible’—But the Failure Made Her a Superstar

The Pat Sajak Show

You know him best as the longstanding (and now retired) host of beloved game show Wheel of Fortune but once upon a time, Pat Sajakwas also a late-night host with his own after-hours series, The Pat Sajak Show, which premiered on CBS on January 9, 1989. (Funnily enough, Chevy Chase was the show’s first guest.)

Sajak’s series was the network’s first attempt at a late-night talk show since The Merv Griffin Show, which ended back in 1972; sadly, that attempt didn’t last nearly as long as its predecessor, with CBS announcing the cancellation due to low ratings that April. Sajak didn’t even appear on the show’s final installment, with comedian Paul Rodríguez hosting instead.

Speaking of guest hosts, The Pat Sajak Show‘s place in pop-culture history wasn’t even cemented by Sajak himself but, oddly, by Rush Limbaugh, who took over emcee duties during a March 1990 episode. The conservative commentator polled the studio audience on the topic of abortion, which resulted in a famously heated argument between Limbaugh and a female audience member.

Related: Pat Sajak, 79, Teases New Projects 1 Year After ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Retirement: ‘Stay Tuned’

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien

It is arguably the messiest, most infamously short talk-show run in late-night history: On June 1, 2009, Conan O’Brien officially took over The Tonight Show from longtime host Jay Leno, who was leaving the decade-spanning NBC institution to start The Jay Leno Show. O’Brien had culled a devoted fanbase of his own with the long-running Late Night with Conan O’Brien and his signature surrealist and self-deprecating humor but couldn’t translate that fandom into strong viewership for his more offbeat version of The Tonight Show.

In January 2010, NBC announced that it was planning to move Jay Leno back to his original 11:35 p.m. timeslot and have O’Brien’s show to follow after midnight, a schedule switch-up that saw Conan threatening to quit. But the comedian didn’t have to — after two weeks of negotiations, NBC bought out the rest of O’Brien’s contract and controversially reinstated Leno as the host of The Tonight Show. O’Brien’s seven-month run remains the shortest in the franchise’s history.

Next, Iconic Talk Show Host Believes Late Night TV ‘Is Going to Disappear’