The Last Joan Rivers Late Show On Fox…

Below is a photo from the last night of ‘The Late Show With Joan Rivers’ which aired on May 15, 1987. The final guests were Chris Rock, Pee Wee Herman, Howie Mandel and Wendy O. Williams. Joan wore the dress she wore on the debut show.

This was Chris Rock’s first time on television. As for Pee Wee Herman, he had been on the debut show, just five months earlier but what a hard and hellacious five months they were for Rivers.

After a moderate start, ratings for the talk show soon sagged which was quite upsetting to Fox who had chosen this Late Night show to launch their new network. The prime time launch for the network was scheduled for April 5, 1987. The ratings struggles made it hard for Fox to attract affiliates for its primetime launch and tensions were high.

A month or so before the final show in May, Joan’s husband Edgar Rosenberg, who was the show’s producer, was fired by Fox. Shortly after, he had a nervous breakdown and in August of ’87, he committed suicide. In tapes he left behind, he said he blamed himself for the split between Joan and Johnny Carson and urging her into the Fox venture.

The behind-the-scenes relations between Rivers and network executives quickly eroded, and Rivers was fired. For the final show, which aired May 15, 1987, the set was trashed with toilet paper, slime, and shaving cream. Good For Joan! -Bobby Ellerbee

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