Both of which seem to have had a second chair to their left for guests or co-hosts, and the chair we think of today for the guest was the overflow. Possibly Carson standardized it.
TBH, I’d be pretty shocked if the arrangement actually originated with The Tonight Show. In Western-languages cultures (and others), I’m thinking it probably goes back close to the origin of a guest & a host appearing in front of an audience, which could go back… many thousands of years, really.
All things being equal, I would suspect TV simply borrowed from a traditional arrangement that came long before.
Jack Paar Tonight show
Steve Allen Tonight show
Both of which seem to have had a second chair to their left for guests or co-hosts, and the chair we think of today for the guest was the overflow. Possibly Carson standardized it.
TBH, I’d be pretty shocked if the arrangement actually originated with The Tonight Show. In Western-languages cultures (and others), I’m thinking it probably goes back close to the origin of a guest & a host appearing in front of an audience, which could go back… many thousands of years, really.
All things being equal, I would suspect TV simply borrowed from a traditional arrangement that came long before.
Fair enough, I just think the Tonight show probably had outsized influence.
*shrug*