The CBS Late Movie — also known as CBS Late Night and Crimetime After Primetime — started on February 14, 1972. Late nights were still new for the Tiffany Network, as many of their stations were playing old movies after the news, but affiliates started to discover that there were less and less new movies available.

Those stations wanted something new.  A 1966 poll revealed that approximately 80% wanted a late evening entertainment show Mondays through Friday, just like NBC’s The Tonight Show. Starting in 1969, they gave Merv Griffin a late night show but his syndicated ratings didn’t come over to late night and he couldn’t compete with Johnny Carson.

With the CBS Late Movie, the network committed to providing classic feature films as well as the debut of more recent theatrical fare. By the second month of this strategy, they were drawing better ratings than Carson, at least for a short time.

In a reality without VCRs, much less streaming movies, the CBS Late Movie — which ran from 11:30 P.M. to 2:30 A.M. — provided an eclectic mix of newer films, made for TV movies, pilots that weren’t bought, collected episodes of canceled shows, episodes of popular shows and some strange films that otherwise may have never aired on TV.

The first run of movies came from a new package of MGM films that had not been previously televised, as well as packages of 1950s Warner Bros. and MGM films that had been run only on local and independent stations but never on a network. In the first two weeks, eight of the ten movies were world television premieres.

Starting in 1976, back-to-back reruns of different one-hour television series started. This was my first chance to see Kolchak, The Night Stalker on TV, as well as British shows like The New Avengers and Return of the Saint and Canadian shows like Night Heat, Hot Shots, Adderely and Diamonds. When ABC canceled T.J. Hooker, the show appeared in late night with new episodes and even a TV movie.  There were also original shows like Beyond the Screen and an American version of Top of the Pops.

The Pat Sajak Show took over the timeslot in 1989 and by that point, most stations would show syndicated programming. Eventually, David Letterman would come to CBS and take over the late night programming. There was the 1991 Crimetime After Primetime block, CBS Summer Showcase in 2015 and even a period where there was original late night programming including The Kids in the Hall along with re-airings of The Prisoner.

Much of what I love of pop culture comes from summer nights watching the CBS Late Movie with my dad. I can vividly recall so many films and episodes of Kolchak. I’d plan for what was coming with my TV Guide and can remember one time that we watched the first segment of an episode of Kolchak and were able to get hot dogs and be back home by the end of the never-ending commercial breaks. The first one would often end by almost 12:30 A.M. for a show that started at 11:30 P.M.

All this month, I’ll be spotlighting movies that aired on CBS when everyone else was asleep. You can see the entire list on Letterboxd and if you’d like to contribute, I’d be honored.

Sources

Wikipedia: The CBS Late Movie

Retro Junk: The CBS Late Movie