CBS to Give ‘Pat Sajak’ a Whole New Look

“The Pat Sajak Show,” long rumored to be destined for the television guillotine, is instead getting a face lift. Beginning Monday, “Sajak” viewers will be tempted away from sleep, Arsenio Hall and Johnny Carson with a new set, new music and a partially new format.

Dan Miller will stay on as the show’s announcer and will occasionally participate in comedy bits, but he will no longer be the Ed McMahon-style sidekick. Likewise, Sajak will no longer exchange witticisms with his band leader, Tom Scott, as Johnny Carson does with Doc Severinsen and David Letterman does with Paul Shaffer.

The show won’t begin anymore with Sajak emerging to loud audience applause and fanfare through a curtain as all the other shows do. Instead, on many nights, he might be seated in a leather chair as the show opens, simply talking to his audience.

Foundering at the bottom of the late-night talk show ratings for most of the past year, CBS’ “Sajak” has been dismissed by critics, talk-show guests and the vast majority of viewers as a dismal flop. The new look is an attempt to overcome that “loser” image, said Michael Weisman, the show’s new executive producer, and to encourage viewers to sample the show once again.

“What we’re trying to do is make Pat as comfortable as possible, play up his strengths and get away from that same old cliched talk-show look,” said Weisman, the former executive producer of NBC Sports who took over at “Sajak” a month ago.

In addition to the sidekick and the banter with the band leader, Weisman is chucking the desk and the couch--all institutions on “The Tonight Show.” Gone too is trying to imitate Arsenio Hall’s upbeat, noisy, party-like atmosphere. The set will now consist of two black leather chairs, with a new, “high-tech” background. There’s also a new 37-second opening and new theme music.

Celebrity guests and interviews will still be the backbone of the show. But Weisman is in negotiations with the local comedy troupe The Groundlings to perform a comedic soap opera, complete with cliffhangers, three nights a week, between the interviews. The show will also feature regular documentary-style tape pieces that go in search of such real-life personalities as “the most outrageous cabdriver in New York” or the “nuttiest waitress in Los Angeles.”

Perhaps the most provocative change will be a nightly roundtable discussion that Weisman plans for the end of each show. The plan--designed to get away from the stock, I-have-an-album-coming-out-next-week celebrity interviews endemic to late-night talk shows--is to have Sajak gather all of the evening’s guests around a table for some unscripted and, Weisman hopes, humorous or argumentative conversation.

Monday’s roundtable will include Joan Rivers, “Murphy Brown’s” Joe Regalbuto and author Erica Jong.

As previously announced, Sajak will soon be hosting his show only four nights a week, with guest hosts filling in on Fridays. The first of these will be comedian John Mulrooney on Feb. 16.