{"id":382536,"date":"2026-01-01T23:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/382536\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T23:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:58:12","slug":"chevy-chase-was-depressed-after-fox-talk-show-was-axed-after-6-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/382536\/","title":{"rendered":"Chevy Chase Was ‘Depressed’ After Fox Talk Show was Axed After 6 Weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA brief chapter in Chevy Chase<\/a>\u2018s illustrious comedy career is his ill-fated late-night talk series \u201cThe Chevy Chase Show,\u201d which ran on Fox for six weeks in 1993 and was cancelled after scathing reviews and low ratings.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the new CNN documentary \u201cI\u2019m Chevy Chase and You\u2019re Not,\u201d Chase opens up about his experience hosting a talk show \u2014 and the disappointment that followed. \u201cI never took anybody\u2019s advice about how to do a talk show. I can do it, I kept thinking,\u201d he said in the doc. \u201cIt was hideous. I just didn\u2019t really have a sense of what you do on a talk show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChase\u2019s representatives and collaborators explained in the documentary that the show, which debuted Sept. 7, 1993, failed because it had \u201cold-time\u201d TV producers and needed a new vision. Plus, while Chase was a gifted comedic actor and movie star, he was less skilled in stand-up comedy.<\/p>\n

\n\tChase\u2019s eldest daughter, Cydney, remembered visiting her dad on set of the talk show. \u201cHe felt nervous to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tAndy Aaron, a writer on \u201cThe Chevy Chase Show,\u201d recounted, \u201cThe reviews were universally terrible, and Chevy literally would come into the writers room and say, \u2018You guys are doing a great job. It is not your fault, it is my fault.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know how people like Letterman and others do it,\u201d Chase said. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond me. You can say, \u2018Well, it\u2019s interesting to have different people\u2026\u2019 Yeah right. We\u2019re all the same, pretty much. It\u2019s not that interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe staff found out the show had been pulled by Fox at the end of Chevy\u2019s 50th birthday party. CAA leader Michael Ovitz, Chase\u2019s agent at the time, asked him if he wanted to go a couple more weeks. \u201c\u2018Couple of weeks?\u2018\u201d Chase recalled in mock surprise. \u201cI think we\u2019re finished.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChase\u2019s daughters talked about Chase\u2019s mental health struggles after the series\u2019 cancellation. \u201cIt was kind of a weird environment after his talk show,\u201d said Cydney Chase. \u201cI know my dad has been depressed. I knew that at a young age. That was sort of hard for me because I would go in and, like, tug on his shirt and he\u2019d say, \u2018Not now, honey.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChase\u2019s daughter Caley added, \u201cOne thing that was interesting about our household is that my parents were pretty open with some of the things going on that were deeper, depending on our ages. My parents were communicating enough to say, \u2018There\u2019s something called depression, and it is hard for people to get out of bed.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe would get in bed and not come out,\u201d added Chase\u2019s wife, Jayni. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChase would go on to star in a handful of films after the talk show ended, and eventually he would have a career resurgence playing Pierce Hawthorne on the sitcom \u201cCommunity,\u201d which ran from 2009 to 2014 on NBC.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1993, \u201cThe Chevy Chase Show\u201d arrived in a moment of frenzy around late-night television. Johnny Carson\u2019s retirement from \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d one year earlier opened up opportunities, and Arsenio Hall was already hosting a successful, syndicated late-night yakker, \u201cArsenio,\u201d which was an immediate draw with younger, multicultural viewers in big cities. Distributed by Paramount, \u201cArsenio\u201d was the first competitor to go up against Carson that stuck around and made a dent in his audience.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Fox network saw \u201cArsenio\u2019s\u201d success and decided to take a swing with a late-night show. It marked Fox\u2019s second attempt to establish a foothold in late-night. In October 1986, Fox Broadcasting Co. was born when it tapped Joan Rivers to host \u201cThe Late Show\u201d in the hopes of taking on Carson with one of his longtime guest hosts. But Rivers\u2019 show had a rocky run and was axed by May 1987. It was replaced briefly by the offbeat, proto-\u201cDaily Show\u201d newsmagazine-style \u201cThe Wilton North Report.\u201d That show lasted about three months. After that, Fox was out of late-night, turning its focus to primetime and finding traction with hits like \u201cMarried With Children\u201d and \u201c21 Jump Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFive years later, Carson\u2019s retirement set off the Leno vs. Letterman battle that ended in Leno taking \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d throne and Letterman moving on to launch a new franchise on CBS. Letterman\u2019s \u201cThe Late Show\u201d launched on CBS with great fanfare on Aug. 30, 1993, after Letterman famously had to wait out the rest of his contract as host of NBC\u2019s post-\u201cTonight Show\u201d hour, \u201cLate Night With David Letterman.\u201d (The open slot at \u201cLate Night\u201d eventually went to Conan O\u2019Brien, who was famously renewed in six-week increments in his first few months.)<\/p>\n

\n\tSo into this mix came Chase to do battle against Leno and Letterman, who were both revved up to prove themselves as the top-dog in the time slot. The whole fracas was quickly dubbed \u201cthe late-night wars\u201d in media and pop culture.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven though it was short-lived, the arrival of Chase\u2019s show as a Fox network offering spelled the end for Hall\u2019s show in syndication. That\u2019s because a number of the stations that carried Hall\u2019s show in major markets were Fox affiliates. When the Fox network decided to go for \u201cChevy Chase,\u201d those affiliate stations were under pressure to drop Hall\u2019s show to make way for the network offering. Most of them did. Despite Chase\u2019s quick hook, the damage was done. \u201cArsenio\u201d aired its final episode on May 27, 1994.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m Chevy Chase and You\u2019re Not\u201d premiered on CNN on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s the first episode of \u201cThe Chevy Chase Show,\u201d via YouTube<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brief chapter in Chevy Chase\u2018s illustrious comedy career is his ill-fated late-night talk series \u201cThe Chevy Chase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[71599,88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-382536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-chevy-chase","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}