This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. When the holidays start to feel a bit repetitive, Reach for a Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry. and put your twist on tradition. A bold cranberry and winter spice flavors fusion.
Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry is a refreshing way to shake things up this sip in season. and only for a limited time. Sprite. Obey your thirst. 10 athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points.
You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you. We'll leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000. This is when mindset comes in.
Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video, January 8th. Watch the trailer on TrainerGames.com. Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here, and the talent is unreal.
Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled Basketball, season 2 sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, True TV, and HBO Max. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt.
From renewable energy companies with high-free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the SP 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on Your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com/slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio.
That's public.com/slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing, Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc., member FINRA SIPC, advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com/slash disclosures.
A new year is on the horizon, and your 2026 savings start here. Right now, you can access the Washington Post for just $2 every four weeks. Head into the new year with six months of savings at the special intro rate. After that, it'll cost $12 every four weeks. Cancel anytime.
You'll get unlimited access to trusted journalism that helps you understand the year ahead and the world around you.
Now's the perfect time to subscribe because great habits and great savings start together. Go to WashingtonPost.com/slash iHeart. That's WashingtonPost.com/slash iHeart and start your year informed with the post. Uh Mm-hmm. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people coming to you from the city where the West begins.
Fort Worth, Texas. They were the king and queen of late night TV until it all came crashing down. Johnny Carson reigned supreme as the host of The Tonight Show. And by his side was Joan Rivers, his trusted protégé. But in 1986, Joan did the unthinkable.
Here with the story is Mark Malkoff, author of In Love with Johnny Carson. Take it away, Mark. Johnny was secure enough that he would let anybody guest host the show that he thought would be interesting. Johnny felt he needed rest from the show to do the best that he did.
So it would be anybody from. Golfer Arnold Palmer to Hogan's hero star Bob Crane to Don Rickles to Michael Landon guest hosting the show. You would have Kirk Douglas, a big movie star, guest host the show. Then you would have quarterback from the Jets Joe Namath guest host. You never knew who was going to be guest hosting the show.
Joan Rivers in 1965 probably had the best comedic debut. You know, in the last few years, If you find out. especially in television, people who usually write comedy material for other people. comedy writers that is, they're not usually amusing themselves. I don't know why.
But here is a young lady who not only writes funny, she is funny herself. Would you welcome, please, Joan Rivers? She went on Johnny's show. She was introduced as a female comedy writer. She was writing for a TV show called Candid Camera, which was a hidden camera show.
And she went on the show. And Johnny told her that night, I have a feeling you're gonna be a big star. Joan Rivers the next day was heralded in the press as the biggest comedic female find since Carol Burnett. She was back with Johnny less than two weeks later. And Joan's life changed.
Johnny loved Joan. In 1982, Johnny decided, I want to have a permanent guest host, and that's going to be Joan Rivers. Joan ended up breaking Frank Sinatra's record. It was either in Atlantic City or Las Vegas. And she became one of the highest paid entertainers in Las Vegas and Atlantic City because she was the permanent guest host on The Tonight Show.
And Johnny absolutely loved her. Miss Rivers was able to get her own show opposite Johnny on the Fox Network, which had just started. She launched that in 1986. Barry Diller, who was the head of Fox, had told me that he had told Ms. Rivers, you need to tell Johnny you are going to be competing against him.
Barry Diller played in a poker game with Johnny Carson, was friends with him. It was Neil Simon, Chevy Chase, Carl Reiner, Steve Martin. And Barry Diller told Joan, you need to tell Johnny. Ms. Rivers did not tell Johnny, and he found out the day before that Ms.
Rivers was to announce it in a press conference and was devastated. Carson, as you know, is going off this week and uh I wasn't asked Ah, here I go. I wasn't asked to come on and say goodbye. I wasn't asked In any way, shape, or form, see part of that with NBC, even though we did call. And what had gone down with me and with Johnny Carson was something private that I left, as you know, to do my own show.
And um as we get close I get more and more sentimental and people start coming up and say to me, Carson, Carson, Carson Uh some of you may remember I was the first woman ever to hosted the show permanently and it was a lot of steps in my life. when I had come out of nowhere I would pause it. Put his arm around me on my first shot. I've been brought up seven times, by the way. And um, The girl from Archmont trying very hard to be a comedian, when ladies were not comedians.
We go back to nineteen sixty six. And my first night on the show, I've been working as an office temporary. and had gone to do the show, and that night Carson said to me, You're gonna be a star. And I was so stupid and young, I looked around and said no one was talking to me. But I just want to say 'Cause they won't let me say it on the tonight show.
The show changed my life. I am totally grateful. I wouldn't be wearing this watch. I wouldn't be wearing this charm base. I wouldn't be having this show without it.
He was very, very hurt that somebody he gave the big break would not tell him to his face that she was going to compete. It was horrible for me. And when the deal was going to be announced, the first one I called was Carson. and he hung up on me and never spoke to me again. Right before the deal was going to be announced.
I said, Johnny, it's Joan, and I think I'm leaving the show. I have my own show at Fox, and click.
So then I called him back. And I said, Johnny. And he clicked. would not hear me. But it became business.
He became what he was, what we all are. Johnny Carson didn't become Johnny Carson, didn't get himself out of Nebraska because he was a sweet kid. You get out because you have drive. Johnny was a tough, aggressive, killer. That's how he got to be Johnny Carson.
And I look back and I think maybe I should have just gone and asked. Johnny, everybody said, would have said, I'm happy for you. I wish you all the best, but I would advise you against it. Johnny was concerned that her style would just not work every night. Every five weeks it worked, but Joan Rivers would make fun of Elizabeth Taylor's weight, do a lot of cruel jokes, and didn't think it would work every single night, and it didn't.
The thing that Johnny Carson had his heartbroken even more is that Joan Rivers tried to take Johnny's producer, Peter LaSalle. Every talent coordinator that Johnny had was offered doubled their salary to go to Miss Rivers' show, and he could not believe that the woman that he mentored would try to take his staff, and he never talked to her again. Miss Rivers, after nine or 10 months, her show ended because Barry Diller, who's the head of Fox, told Miss Rivers that she needed to remove her husband, Edgar Rosenberg, who's producer of the show. And Joan Rivers said she wouldn't do it. And then Barry Diller said that you're going to be fired.
She thought Mr. Diller was bluffing. He wasn't. Miss Rivers was removed as the host of the late show on Fox. Two months later, Edgar Rosenberg took his own life.
But Joan Rivers, even though they had their issues, would always say Johnny was the best straight man in the history of the business. Johnny Carson was the best straight man ever. He knew where you were going. He knew when to come in and say How fat was she? He knew when not to say it.
No, m well my wedding night was a disaster, you know that. A lot of men smoke after they make love, and they smoke during.
Now that's... Asked me for a light. Do you think that's nice? I say getting yourself in the dashboard. What's the matter?
It was an immediate connection. You knew you were bringing your little gift to him of a joke. And you knew he was going to open it and love it. I must say publicly, you always compliment me on this show. Telling you that you owe so much to the tonight show and so forth.
To you, not the tonight show. I told you. To you. Yeah. And a special thanks to Mark Malkoff, his book, In Love with Johnny Carson, One Obsessive Fans' Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend, and my goodness, the suicide of her husband, Edgar, a Shakespearean tragedy, here on Our American Stories.
No. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we tell stories of history, faith, business, love, loss, and your stories. Send us your stories, small or large, to our email, OAS at ouramericanstories.com. We'd love to hear them and put them on the air.
Our audience loves them too. This is Eva Longoria from Hungry for History with Eva Longoria and Maite Gomez Rejon. Like the song says, it's the most wonderful time of the year, and also a wonderfully busy one. All that merriment can weigh down even Santa Slay.
So keep it wonderful by keeping yourself wonderful with a crisp, cold Coca-Cola. Ugh. pause for fizzy joy. Look out for yourself, and then look out for everyone else. And together we'll make this season as wonderful as it's meant to be.
Enjoy a Coca-Cola. Refresh your holidays. Ten athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000.
This is when mindset comes in.
Someone will be eliminated. Pressure is coming down. Trainer Games on Prime Video, January 8th. Watch the trailer on TrainerGames.com. Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here, and the talent is unreal.
Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plum, Brianna Stewart, and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled Basketball, season 2 sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, True TV, and HBO Max. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt.
From renewable energy companies with high-free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the SP 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your Your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com/slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio.
That's public.com/slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing, Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc., member FINRA, SIPC, Advisory Services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com/slash disclosures.
A new year is on the horizon, and your 2026 savings start here. Right now, you can access The Washington Post for just $2 every four weeks. Head into the new year with six months of savings at the special intro rate. After that, it'll cost $12 every four weeks. Cancel anytime.
You'll get unlimited access to trusted journalism that helps you understand the year ahead and the world around you.
Now's the perfect time to subscribe because great habits and great savings start together. Go to WashingtonPost.com/slash iHeart. That's WashingtonPost.com/slash iHeart and start your year informed with the post. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.
Mm-hmm.
