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58 Late-Night TV Series and Their First Guests

Mike Vicic - February 24, 2014

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After anchoring SNL's Weekend Update for the past eight years, Seth Meyers moves from late night Saturdays to weeknights, taking over the mantle of LATE NIGHT from Jimmy Fallon -- and receving the LATE NIGHT pickle in the transition. When his series premieres tonight (NBC at 12:35am ET/PT, following local news and THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON), Meyers welcomes his former Weekend Update co-anchor Amy Poehler, Vice President Joe Biden and musical guest A Great Big World. Other scheduled guests for the first week include:


  • Tuesday, Feb. 25: Kanye West, Russell Wilson and author Robyn Doolittle.
  • Wednesday, Feb. 26: Kelly Ripa, Brad Paisley and musical guest Brad Paisle.
  • Thursday, Feb. 27: Lena Dunham, Anthony Mackie and musical guest John Mayer Trio.
  • Friday, Feb. 27: Ian McKellen & Patrick Stewart, Sophia Bush and comedian Michael Che.


Poehler joins an exclusive club as a first guest. Of course, Bill Murray leads that club, having received the honor three different times. Who else was a first guest? TV Tango went through the archives and found 58 first guests of late-night TV — all since LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN premiered back in February 1982.


Check out the list below to see who was the first guest on your fave late-night program.  We only included series that started at 10pm or later; so you won't find DOGG AFTER DARK, TOM GREEN LIVE, or any other early primetime (or daytime) talk shows.  If we found a clip of the premiere episode, we included a link for that video. 


Enjoy!

   

58 Late-Night TV Series and Their First Guests


1THICKE OF THE NIGHT had Barry Manilow by satellite before the first in-studio guest interview.

2INTO THE NIGHT had Wilson Phillips as the musical act before the first guest interview.

3VIBE had President Clinton by satellite to start the show plus a few brief celebrity appearances before the first in-studio guest interview.

4JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE introduced Snoop Dogg as the guest host for the week before the first guest interview.

5CHELSEA LATELY had a roundtable with Chyna and others before the first guest interview.

6THE ERIC ANDRE SHOW had a George Clooney impersonator as its first guest, followed by Dolph Loundgren on the series premiere episode.

7THE JENNY MCCARTHY SHOW had Josh Groban scheduled to be the show's first guest, but he left before the program was taped.