During the early days of her career, comedian Joan Rivers formed a relationship with The Tonight
Show's Johnny Carson that helped rocket her into stardom. Later in Joan's life,
she took a gig hosting a competing talk show, and this decision caught Johnny's ire. The two began a
feud that lasted until Johnny's death, with Joan claiming that the reason Johnny was so incensed
was that he even considered her to be his own personal property! Near the end of Joan's life,
she came forward with the unexpected revelation that she and Johnny had been intimate on at least
one occasion. Join Facts Verse as we explore how Joan Rivers slept with the man she hated most.
For more than two decades, Joan Rivers and Johnny Carson seemed like the closest of friends.
After several years of struggling on the underground comedy scene as a female comedian,
which mind you, was a rarity back in those days, Joan rose to fame
thanks to Johnny taking a chance on her on his popular program, The Tonight Show.
Johnny certainly had a big hand in allowing Joan to achieve the success that she did,
but perhaps he came to feel he deserved a little more credit than he really did.
Joan Rivers was born in 1933 and aspired to be a dramatic actress during her young
adulthood. While she continued acting well into her adult years, she turned to standup
comedy in order to pay the bills. Though young Joan made enough money to get by, she
found herself treading water in the underground comedy scene throughout her 20s. It wasn't until
Johnny Carson invited her on The Tonight Show in 1965 that Joan finally caught her big break.
Joan had performed on The Tonight Show once before, though that had been before it was
hosted by Johnny Carson. The performance had gone exceptionally terrible, and by some accounts, even
put a damper on Joan's fledgling career. However, her second appearance on the program proved to
be just the jolt the young comedian needed to find mainstream success.
Joan Rivers was 31 years old when she first appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson. She had previously appeared on the show during Jack Paar's tenure as host, though
her first appearance alongside Johnny Carson proved much more successful. The
appearance occurred in February of 1965. Joan was given a chance to converse with
Johnny as a guest, and their chemistry instantly resonated with the audience.
Johnny Carson famously predicted on his show that Joan Rivers was going to become a star - and he
sure was right! Sadly, the pair's relationship ended up souring many years after this occurred.
After the success of Joan's initial appearance, she was hired for a time as a writer on
The Tonight Show. She also began making further high-profile appearances on both The Tonight Show
and other television programs. All the while, she continued practicing her unique standup comedy.
Joan Rivers appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson nearly 100 times in her career,
in addition to being a writer on the show for a period of time. In 1968, Joan Rivers
was given a daytime talk show, and Johnny Carson was the show’s first notable guest!
Sadly, the show wasn't a success, though Joan would find success on
daytime television many decades later, after the start of her and Carson's infamous feud.
While many of Joan’s appearances on The Tonight Show were as a guest,
there were also many appearances that she made in the capacity of a guest host. When
Johnny Carson was out of commission, Joan would often be brought in to replace him when need be,
given her established chemistry with the show's audience. Because of this,
Joan considered herself to be a prime candidate when it came time for NBC to
replace Johnny Carson as the show's permanent host. However, this turned out to be untrue.
As Joan’s fame increased, so did her opportunities in the entertainment industry.
According to the late comedian, she received many offers during her days working as a guest
host on The Tonight Show to host her own program for competing networks. However,
she always turned down the offers out of respect for Johnny Carson. That is,
until Joan reached her breaking point with the network. Once Joan realized that she wasn’t
seen as a viable contender to permanently replace Johnny Carson as The Tonight Show’s
permanent host in the eyes of NBC, Joan made the decision to accept a competing offer.
Joan certainly wasn’t the first regular guest of Johnny Carson’s to take a job hosting a show
on a competing network, but she was the first woman to do so. According to the late Joan Rivers,
this is the reason why Johnny took it personally when Joan took a job hosting
her own late-night talk show on the burgeoning Fox Broadcasting Company’s television networks.
The show was simply titled The Late Show and premiered in October of 1986. Immediately,
Johnny Carson became irate and began causing problems for the program.
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Although Joan Rivers had gotten her big break performing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson, and the two had always seemed like such great friends to the public over the two
decades that they had maintained a professional relationship, it appears that much of their
chemistry was a façade manufactured for the show's viewers. All in all,
it seems as if Joan Rivers never really knew Johnny Carson that well during the time that
they worked together on The Tonight Show. For his part, it seems that Johnny wasn’t interested
in viewing Joan Rivers as anything more than property, at least according to the beloved
female comedian herself. The two still apparently had intimate relations on at least one occasion.
When the Fox Broadcasting Company came on the scene and began looking for noteworthy new
content to fill their burgeoning television networks across the United States, they saw
obvious potential in Joan Rivers as the host of a new late-night program to compete with NBC.
Given that Joan’s relationship with executives at the network had soured,
she was a prime candidate to be picked up by the competition. The company offered Joan a sum of $10
million to begin filming her own show for their networks. Additionally, they allowed
Joan's then-husband, Edgar Rosenberg, to come onto the show's creative staff as a producer.
According to Joan, she had kept her deal with the Fox Broadcasting Company a secret from Johnny
Carson due to the fact that she didn't want to say anything about it until it was finalized. However,
rumors began spreading before the show hit the air, and Johnny ended up finding out
from a source besides Joan. This is perhaps part of the reason that Johnny took Joan's
new gig on her competing late-night program so personally when under different circumstances,
he had expressed well wishes towards former friends-turned-competitors in the past.
Joan claimed that she tried to call Johnny Carson to talk to him personally about the matter,
and he hung up on her as soon as he answered. However, Johnny claimed that Joan never called
at all. Regardless of who was right and who was wrong, the two maintained a feud that was never
resolved by the time the first of the two died in 2005. By the time of Johnny's 2005 death,
he and Joan had not spoken in nearly two decades. Joan talked poorly about the man up until his
death and continued to do so afterward. Not only had she lost a personal friend and mentor,
but Johnny had also done everything in his power to sabotage her professionally.
The Late Show was a failure for the Fox Broadcasting Company, thanks in no small
part to Joan and Johnny’s infamous feud. Johnny made it known that anyone who appeared on Joan’s
program as a guest was never again allowed on his, and this made it so that The Late Show had
an incredibly hard time getting anyone of note to show up. The show was eventually canceled,
though that didn't end Joan and Johnny's feud. After Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show,
Jay Leno came on as his permanent replacement. Jay refused to let
Joan onto The Tonight Show out of respect for Johnny Carson, meaning that Joan was prevented
from returning to the program that had made her a star until shortly before her death.
Joan Rivers eventually found continued career success in the 1990s and beyond,
despite the failure of The Late Show and the fact that she was barred from performing on The Tonight
Show. She began hosting a daytime talk show by the name of The Joan Rivers Show in 1989,
and the program allowed her to finally become a successful host in her own right.
The comedian retained celebrity status in the years leading up to her 2014 death,
and it was with open arms that the audience received her return to The Tonight Show.
After Jay Leno finally retired in February of 2014, Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon was
brought on to take his place. Though Jimmy had plenty of respect for the late Johnny Carson,
he also had plenty of admiration for Joan Rivers. He was the one who finally allowed Joan to make
her highly anticipated return to the program that had made her a star so many decades before. In
September of that same year, the beloved female comedian died from complications
related to throat surgery at the age of 81.
Joan Rivers may have grown to hate Johnny Carson more than any other man alive after he
made the decision to scorn her both personally and professionally in the 1980s, but she still had to
live with the memory of sleeping with him during their friendship! Now it’s time to hear from you:
did you know that Joan Rivers slept with Johnny Carson while the two were working together on
The Tonight Show, or did you think that their relationship had been entirely professional? As
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