Think you know all there is to know about Johnny Carson? Think again.
Mark Malkoff, the former host of The Carson Podcast (and, full disclosure, current host of LateNighter’s Inside Late Night podcast) has devoted the better part of the last fifteen years to tracking down nearly everyone who ever crossed paths with the king of late night.
The result is Love Johnny Carson, a new 474-page book arriving October 21, just two days before the centennial of Carson’s birth on October 23, 1925.
Part biography, part behind-the-scenes chronicle, the new book draws from more than 400 interviews with those who knew and worked with Carson over his 30-year reign at NBC. Among the highlights are never-before-revealed details about the breakout debuts of comics like David Letterman and Ellen DeGeneres, and the icy collapse of his relationship with Joan Rivers. (Spoiler: It’s more complicated than you’ve heard.)
Mark also tackles the rumors and half-truths that have dogged Carson’s legacy, who he banned from his show and why (hello, William Shatner), how he influenced presidential politics (hello, Richard Nixon), and which beloved comic made the writing staff groan every time they were tapped to guest-host.
If all this sounds like the work of a Carson obsessive, it is—as anyone who listened to The Carson Podcast, Mark’s 391-episode oral history project, can attest.
By framing Johnny Carson not just as a legend but as a complicated, consequential figure who shaped (and sometimes resisted) the evolution of the talk show form, Love Johnny Carson will settle debates, surprise superfans, and reignite appreciation for the man who defined late-night for a generation.
Love Johnny Carson by Mark Malkoff with David Ritz is being published by Dutton and releases October 21, 2025. Preorders are available now.
