Never easy to follow host with the most

The job of taking over from a big star in a high rating program can be fraught with difficulties

Graham Kennedy wearing his crown as King of Moomba. 1979

In show business they often use the expression “a tough act to follow”. When one person so completely dominates the spotlight the person following him or her can find it difficult to hold the audience.

In the UK fans are wondering whether top-rating motoring show Top Gear can even continue after host Jeremy Clarkson was sacked. In the US, the relatively little known South African comedian Trevor Noah has just been ­announced as the replacement for Jon Stewart on the satirical news program The Daily Show. Both Clarkson and Stewart, like them or loathe them, will be hard to follow.

It is a problem confronted by TV executives many times in the past. When a long-time host, or host with a huge following, leaves a program at the peak of its popularity the challenge is to keep the momentum going with a new face.

One of the longest running hosts on American TV was Johnny Carson, at the helm of NBC’s Tonight Show from 1962-92. Originally called Tonight! The Knickerbocker Beer Show but later retitled The Steve Allen Show then Tonight Starring Steve Allen, the Tonight Show premiered in 1953.

First host Steve Allen, a radio veteran, stayed for less than three years before Jack Paar took over for five years. But Paar’s grip on the job was at times tenuous. He walked out in 1960 after one of his sketches was censored and had to be coaxed into returning. But feeling the strain of doing five live shows a week he finally left in 1962 to do a weekly variety show.

Paar recommended Carson, host of the game show Who Do You Trust? as his successor. Carson was initially reluctant but was eventually enticed to do the show. Despite difficulties in the first year Carson made The Tonight Show his own. Throughout his tenure he invited guest hosts including David Letterman, who was widely rumoured to be a possible successor. But when Carson left in 1992 the job was handed to Carson’s permanent guest host Jay Leno.

Letterman had been hosting a late show following Carson’s and wanted to move his show into Carson’s timeslot. Others wanted him to take over from Carson. When neither outcome eventuated he went on Carson’s show to say he wasn’t angry but admitted he would have liked to take over The Tonight Show. He later joined rival network CBS.

Despite fears that Carson’s shoes were too big to fill, Leno managed to make the job his own and stayed on until 2009.

Successor Conan O’Brien failed to keep Leno’s audience and was booted from the show after a year, given a huge payout and Leno came back. This proved to be a mistake. Ratings plunged as the show struggled against Late Show With David Letterman. Leno eventually clawed back some of his audience then left the show in the capable hands of Jimmy Fallon. Letterman is leaving his show in May, to be succeeded by Steve Colbert.

While Carson dominated evening viewing in the US, Australia had Graham Kennedy. An unlikely TV star, the boggle-eyed Kennedy charmed audiences with his rapier wit.

As host of Channel 9’s In Melbourne Tonight (IMT) from 1957-70 he was dubbed “the King” and seemed irreplaceable, ­although the show often used guest hosts. When Kennedy finally let go of the reins of IMT in 1970 he was replaced with four of those guest hosts — Ugly Dave Grey, Jimmy Hannan, Stuart Wagstaff and Bert Newton.

The show limped on but was ­finally axed in 1971.

Kennedy was brought back at the helm of his own show in 1972 but was thrown off after an infamous crow call that sounded like the F-word.

Tony Barber’s stint as host of Sale Of The Century also clocked up an impressive innings. Barber initially hosted a version of the game show, then named The Great Temptation, from 1970-75, on Channel 7, earning a gold Logie along the way. When it was revived as Sale Of The Century in 1980 by Channel 9 Barber resumed his role and held on until 1991. His departure caused some concern, because Barber brought a unique energy to the program.

His replacement Glenn Ridge was greeted with some scepticism because he had only worked in regional TV and was somewhat bland by comparison, but he suited a more sophisticated style adopted by the show in the ’90s. He stayed in the job for a respectable 10 years.