Поздний киносеанс CBS: История вечернего эфира

Television series

The CBS Late Movie is a CBS television series (later known as CBS Late Night) during the 1970s and 1980s. The program ran in most American television markets from 11:30 p. m. (ET/PT) until 2:30 a. m. or later, on weeknights. A single announcer (in the early years, CBS staff announcer Norm Stevens) voiced the introduction and commercial bumpers for each program, but there was no host per se, or closing credits besides those of the night's presentation. (The bumpers announcing the stars of the movie rotated names, two or three at a time, so more of the players would be mentioned.) The program was launched following the cancellation of The Merv Griffin Show, CBS' late night talk show from 1969 to 1972, which went on to have a long run in first run syndication following CBS' cancellation. The CBS Late Movie theme music was "So Old, So Young" by CBS West Coast musical director Morton Stevens, which also served as the theme music for CBS' prime time movies until 1978.

Until 1969, CBS programming had never ventured into the late hours. However, three years earlier, scheduling coordinators at many of the network's affiliates, who were programming old movies after nightly local newscasts, took notice of the dwindling stock of new films available for acquisition. In fact, a 1966 poll of CBS affiliates revealed that approximately 80% of local outlets were demanding the network "supply a late evening entertainment show Mondays through Fridays" to fill the growing void in newer films. Thus, CBS tentatively targeted the spring of 1968 as the premiere date for a new network late night series. But CBS spokespersons admitted they "did not know whether its show would be similar to others, but it [was] hopeful of devising something different" from the usual talk format exemplified by Johnny Carson's Tonight Show on NBC or Joey Bishop, who was about to bring his own brand of chat to ABC audiences. In 1967, at its annual convention, CBS met with 750 affiliate executives and told them the network could provide a Carson style late night program by the following spring—but only if 85% of station owners would commit to airing it. Otherwise, the financing required for such a production would prove cost prohibitive. No official poll was taken among the executives, however, and this may have been due to the fact that in 1966 when a similar offer was dangled before affiliates, only 70% of CBS stations desired a late evening talk show. Yet in 1969, this is just what was offered to them—in the person of Merv Griffin. But despite his success as a syndicated TV phenomenon, Griffin's CBS ratings could never compete with Johnny Carson's consistently high audience numbers. And thus, in pulling the plug on Griffin in early 1972, CBS committed its late night programming to classic feature films as well as the debut of more recent theatrical fare. This move proved an effective ploy because two months after The CBS Late Movie premiered, the Nielsen ratings recorded that it had drawn a larger audience than The Tonight Show. One CBS executive had a simple explanation for this sudden (though short lived) good fortune: "People just like to watch movies." The CBS Late Movie/Late Night block, however, was not always cleared by every affiliate of the network; in several markets, the block was either delayed by one hour from its regularly scheduled time (most notably in the Central and Mountain time zones), picked up by a local independent station (including those that later affiliated with the Fox network), or not seen at all in certain cities. Those stations that did not carry CBS Late Night instead broadcast movies from their own libraries and/or their own lineup of off network syndicated sitcoms, drama reruns, and first run syndication products. A large factor in the programming decisions of many CBS affiliates electing not to clear CBS Late Night (or delaying it) was due to head to head competition with NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and starting in 1980, ABC News' Nightline. ABC themselves went with a similar format to CBS Late Night, with Wide World of Entertainment, which later gave way to ABC Late Night, which consisted of reruns of that network's prime time series, original movies, and some first run programming. Preemptions and delays of the block by CBS affiliates increased during the 1980s, and into the early 1990s, as the syndication market began to grow more, and several stations deciding it would be more financially beneficial to air syndicated programming, thus keeping all advertising revenue for themselves. The debut of The Pat Sajak Show in January 1989 gained some affiliates back to the CBS Late Night lineup; however, some CBS affiliates elected to air The Arsenio Hall Show in syndication instead; in the case of CBS' Chicago station, WBBM TV, both shows aired back to back after the late newscasts. It was not until 1999, when the final stations agreed to carry The Late Late Show in its default time slot, that CBS' late night programming (excluding Nightwatch/Up to the Minute) was cleared across the entire network. Even before that, full clearance of the Late Show with David Letterman across the network (which premiered in August 1993) wouldn't happen until the end of 1994.

After 1976, the show also featured back to back reruns of different one hour television series, some popular (Barnaby Jones, Kojak), some lesser known (Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Black Sheep Squadron, Dan August, Harry O), and some originally made for British television (The Avengers and The New Avengers, Return of the Saint, Thriller). Repeats of several of the network's situation comedies were also shown in rotation during the 1970s and early 1980s, including The Jeffersons, M*A*S*H, Alice, Archie Bunker's Place and WKRP in Cincinnati. The original series Behind the Screen was part of CBS Late Night from October 1981 to January 1982. The Late Movies time slot was also at times taken over by tape delayed sports events, such as NBA playoffs and finals games.

TV movies from other networks (Something for Joey, Birth of The Beatles) began to appear during the 1980s, and in 1985 the series was retooled as CBS Late Night. The expansion of cable and satellite television during the 1980s took over much of the show's movie fare, and it became mostly a place for repeats of Magnum, P. I. and other popular CBS shows. Night Heat, a production of Canada's CTV network, also aired on CBS Late Night. Adderly, Hot Shots and Diamonds, other Canadian filmed shows, later appeared. After T. J. Hooker was canceled by ABC in the summer of 1985, CBS picked up the show and produced new episodes and one two hour TV movie titled "Blood Sport". The new episodes were shown later at night as the first portion of CBS Late Night, with each episode's runtime extended to 70 minutes (or one hour and 10 minutes) to allow CBS affiliates time for increased availability for advertisements. The TV movie and the penultimate episode were both aired by CBS on May 21, 1986, with the finale one week later on May 28, 1986. In 1987, CBS aired an Americanized version of the BBC's long running pop music show, Top of the Pops, hosted by Nia Peeples and featuring some performances from the BBC version of the program, alongside those taped in Hollywood. The show was presented on late Friday nights, and lasted almost a year.

In 1989, CBS Late Night was replaced by The Pat Sajak Show. A year later, CBS Late Night returned after The Pat Sajak Show was shortened from 90 to 60 minutes in February 1990 and then cancelled altogether on April 13, 1990. During the same two month time span, CBS Late Night also televised reruns of Patrick McGoohan's classic spy series, The Prisoner (1967–68). The network also continued to show reruns of other old prime time shows such as Wiseguy and shows from other networks including Fox's 21 Jump Street and NBC's Stingray. The line up also featured original programming; for example, there was Overtime with Pat O'Brien as well as The Kids in the Hall and The Midnight Hour. In March 1991, CBS retooled their late night by airing original series under a new umbrella title of Crimetime After Primetime; new shows included, but were not limited to, Silk Stalkings, Forever Knight, Stephen J. Cannell's anthology series Scene of the Crime,Tropical Heat (shown as Sweating Bullets on CBS), and Dark Justice. By that fall, CBS added two original game shows to the start of the late night lineup playing off the popularity of the syndicated dating game show Studs; the first to premiere in September 1991 was Personals, hosted by Michael Burger, paired a month later with Night Games, starring comedian Jeff Marder and Playboy Playmate Luann Lee as announcer. Both were adult oriented game shows that followed a format similar to The Dating Game. Night Games was canceled in June 1992, replaced by A Perfect Score, a similar show also hosted by Marder. Both Score and Personals continued until December 1992, to be replaced by an earlier Crimetime After Primetime until being dropped for Late Show with David Letterman by the following August. Letterman's agreement with the network also came with the ability to produce programming in the hour after his show. In January 1995, Letterman's company Worldwide Pants began producing The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder for the network, which he would continue to control until James Corden's run began in March 2015, when it came under network ownership.

CBS revived the concept of running late night crime and police procedural reruns, using the umbrella title CBS Summer Showcase, in the summer of 2015 between the May 20 finale of Late Show with David Letterman and the September 8 premiere of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and the restoration of the Ed Sullivan Theater between those dates. From May 21, 2015, until September 7, 2015, the network aired reruns of police procedurals and scripted dramas in the Late Show slot beginning with The Mentalist (May 21–June 5) and continued throughout the summer with Hawaii Five 0 (June 8–12, July 27–31), CSI: Cyber (June 15–19, August 17–21), Elementary (June 22–26), Blue Bloods (June 29 July 5), The Good Wife (July 6–10, August 24–28), NCIS: Los Angeles (July 13–17), NCIS (July 20–24, September 7) Scorpion (August 3–7), NCIS: New Orleans (August 10–14) and Madam Secretary (August 31 September 4). The network dismissed concerns that it could hurt the ratings of The Late Late Show with James Corden, which follows the Late Show. These fears were not realized, as The Late Late Show received ratings consistent with what it had garnered previously, and Summer Showcase itself usually maintained Letterman's ratings share, even beating first run episodes of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the ratings. Corden subsequently used the lead ins as an opportunity to spoof companion aftershows such as Talking Dead, with cold open sketches such as Talking Mentalist and Talking Hawaii Five 0. CBS CEO Les Moonves made a cameo appearance during the series premiere of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, manning a lever that he could use to switch back to The Mentalist reruns if he was dissatisfied with the new program.