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.
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*