Friday Night with Ralph Benmergui
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friday Night! with Ralph Benmergui was a Canadian television variety show, which aired on CBC Television from 1992 to 1993. In its first season, the show aired at 10 p.m., following Prime Time News. In its second season, it aired at 11 p.m.
The show was hosted by Ralph Benmergui, and the house band was The Look People. It was one hour long and had an American late-night talk show format: an opening monologue followed by comedy sketches, guest interviews, and musical performances. Notable guests on the show included Céline Dion and Leonard Cohen.
The show was a ratings failure from the beginning, capturing only one-third of the audience that the CBC had in its timeslot the previous year. The show was nonetheless renewed for a second season, but was cancelled mid-season. Its final show was on New Year's Eve, 1993. The audience decline has been attributed Benmergui's hosting style, its poor writing, its inability to attract high-calibre guests, and to the overall failure of the network's radically revamped prime time schedule in the years Friday Night! was on the air.
Benmergui subsequently moved to CBC Newsworld, hosting the afternoon talk show Benmergui Live. The CBC subsequently developed another variety series, Rita and Friends, which began airing in the fall of 1994.
