Two Women Enter Late-Night Lineup : Television: Radio’s Stephanie Miller and actress-model Lauren Hutton plan alternatives to current talk-show formats.

Late-night TV. Only the Citadel is harder for women to get into.

But this fall, two more women are going to take a run at late-night in syndication--former radio host Stephanie Miller and actress and model Lauren Hutton.

“The Stephanie Miller Show” premieres Sept. 15 on KCOP-TV Channel 13 and will air weekdays at midnight. Like “Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” Miller will tape a live show nightly.

How is she different?

“I have breasts,” she says. “That’s the big thing.”

There are other things too. No band. No desk. A studio audience with nightclub-style seating. Conversations with the audience via video phone. And lots of pre-taped sketch comedy starring Miller as real-life characters.

Executive producers John Kalish and Anne Beatts also think that Miller’s frame of reference as a woman will make her a unique--perhaps more provocative--interviewer.

“She’s going to ask the questions that Barbara Walters leaves in the car,” says Beatts. “She’s not a very show-biz kind of person, so she’ll ask the questions that we all want to ask, because that is what will occur to her. . . . She’s the person who would point out that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.”

Her show-biz outsider status doesn’t mean she’s unprepared for the job. For the past 18 months, Miller hosted a nightly talk show on KFI-AM (640). In fact, she got the TV deal when a Disney executive heard her on the car radio. Disney-owned Buena Vista Television is now distributing her show.

(Miller inadvertently helped out another talk-radio host, Danny Bonaduce. He performed so well as a guest on her pilot that Buena Vista developed a daytime talk show for him called “Danny!”)

“It never occurred to me while I was doing [radio]--because it was just paying the bills--but I think it was the best training ground,” Miller says. “You learn to host and interview. It’s not like I was just a stand-up or an actor.”

The other new lady on late night, Hutton, is having to do more on-the-job training than Miller. Her half-hour show, “Lauren Hutton and . . .,” will be a one-on-one conversation with celebrities, authors and experts.

At first, she says, “I was doing as much talking as the guests. That’s radically changed since the first week. . . . I’m learning to shut up and listen.”

Fortunately, Hutton has had what she calls the “forgiveness of film.” The show is being recorded on film rather than videotape, and then cut down to 20 minutes (to leave room for commercials) from 35 or 40.

“Lauren Hutton and . . . “ will air weeknights at 1:30 a.m. on KCAL-TV Channel 9. So far, it’s scheduled to air in about 80% of U.S. markets. The format is likely a tough sell after the similar “Whoopi Goldberg Show” bombed two years ago.

One difference is that Hutton’s show is directed by Luca Babini, a filmmaker and photographer. The final product, Hutton says, is intimate and stylish, like a conversation in a movie. The conversations with people such as Naomi Campbell, Peter Fonda and marine biologist Sylvia Earle will be well-preserved on film, Hutton says.

“A lot of these people are living treasures, I think. It’s really nice to have actual film that will always stay beautiful,” says Hutton, who is also anticipating a visit to her SoHo studio by Aretha Franklin. “I’m trying to get a lot of people that I haven’t seen really beautiful conversations with.”