With the hosts Merv Griffin, Pat Sajak, David Letterman and Stephen Colbert, CBS has taken many runs at late-night TV. Some were more successful than others.

Like Stephen Colbert, the Smothers Brothers enjoyed top ratings, and they had a history of refusing to avoid sensitive topics, regularly airing anti-Vietnam War and pro-civil rights segments at a time when such material was scarce on network television.

The late-night guys have zeroed in on Trump and Epstein's relationship in the wake of the Bondi news, which itself followed a report from the Wall Street Journal that the president had doodled a crude drawing of a woman inside a card for Epstein's 50th birthday.

The last time I watched late-night comedy via appointment viewing was, perhaps, Jay Leno in the 1990s. Erik A former Leno man. I liked the “Headlines” feature, what can I say? Alyssa Rosenberg I am basically elderly and never watched a late-night show in my life;

When CBS announced that it had hired Merv Griffin to host a late-night show beginning in 1969, the host's syndicated talk show, also called "The Merv Griffin Show," had been around for several years and was a successful staple on more than 140 stations.