‘Late Show,’ Take Three, Premieres Tonight

Fox Broadcasting Co. tonight will make its third stab at creating a late-night talk-show success with a revamped version of its original effort, “The Late Show.”

The new program, which will air locally at 11:30 p.m. on KTTV Channel 11, will feature Los Angeles comedians Jeff Joseph and John Mulrooney as hosts.

The new “Late Show” comes on the air just as its competition, NBC’s “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, has been forced into reruns at least until the end of this week due to the Writers Guild of America strike. NBC’s other late-night show, “Late Night With David Letterman,” also is in repeats until Monday, but they had been planned before the strike.

Michael Binkow, Fox Broadcasting’s vice president of corporate communications, said that the premiere date for the new “Late Show” had been selected three to four weeks ago. He denied that it was being launched this week to take advantage of weaker-than-usual competition.

“It (the strike) has absolutely nothing to do with the timing. The show was planned to start as soon as we could get everything together,” Binkow said.

He said the program will have the same talk, comedy and music format as the original “Late Show Starring Joan Rivers” that debuted in October, 1986. Rivers was dismissed from the show last May, giving way to “The Late Show” with various guest hosts. That show was replaced last December by “The Wilton North Report,” a comedy-news experiment that was canceled after three weeks on the air. Since then, Fox has aired repeats of “The Late Show.”

Binkow said that, unlike the Carson and Letterman shows, production of new “Late Show” installments will not be forced to a halt by the strike.

“Since we’re using stand-up comedians (as hosts), they are writing their own material,” he said. Joseph is a stand-up comedian who has performed at local clubs such as The Improv. Mulrooney, who also has worked at the Improv, is slated to co-host with Allen Funt the new “Candid Camera.”

Fox Broadcasting has also hired local juggler and comedian Daniel Rosen to be the announcer on the show. The house band will be the local group Jack Mack & the Heart Attack. The show will be produced by Ron Vandor, a former Fox Broadcasting executive.