The Nat King Cole Show (1957) | 2 Episodes | Colored on TV

THE NAT "KING" COLE SHOW (Musical Variety)
FIRST TELECAST: November 5, 1956
LAST TELECAST: Decemberi7, 1957

BROADCAST HISTORY: Nov 1956-Jun 1957 , NBC Mon 7:30-7:45 Jul 1957-Sep 1957 , NBC Tue 10:00-10:30 Sep 1957-Dec 1957 , NBC Tue 7:30-8:00 REGULARS: Nat "King" Cole The Boataneers (1956) The Herman McCoy Singers The Randy Van Home Singers (1957) The Jerry Graff Singers (1957) The Cheerleaders (1957) Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra

Nat "King" Cole was a man ahead of his time, and that fact cost him his network series. When his 15-minute show premiered in 1956, he became the first major black performer to headline a network variety series. There had been previous attempts at black series, but they were either short-lived fill-ins with lesser-known talent such as Sugar Hill Times in 1949 and Hazel Scott in 1950, or rather degrading parodies such as Beulah or Amos 'n' Andy. Nat's short Monday evening show, which filled the remainder of the half hour in which NBC aired its nightly news program, allowed him little more than the opportunity to sing a couple of songs and occasionally welcome a guest vocalist. The following July, Nat moved to Tuesdays with an expanded half-hour show, allowing time for more variety and guests. Throughout its run, however, The Nat "King" Cole Showwas plagued with problems. It failed to attract a significant audience, and therefore sponsors were reluctant to underwrite the show.
From 1956-1957 Nat averaged only 19 percent of the viewing audience, compared to the 5o percent who were watching Robin Hood on CBS. Nat even trailed a documentary-travelogue on ABC, ca lled Bold Journey , which got 21 percent of the audience (the remaining 10 percent were watching non-network programs). Despite widespread apathy on the part of viewers and sponsors, NBC did not give up on the show, keeping it on the air, at a loss, through the fall of 1957. The performing community was well aware of Nat's spon- sor problems, and many stars appeared on the show for minimum fees as personal favors to him, in an effort to save the show. Virtually every black musical star showed up at one time or another, including Count Basie, Mahalia Jackson, Pearl Bailey, Billy Eck-stine, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Mills Brothers, Cab Cal-loway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Harry Belafonte. Nat had his white supporters too, among them Stan Kenton, Frankie Laine, Mel Torme, Peggy Lee, Gogi Grant, Tony Martin, and Tony Bennett. But the effort was in vain. It would be another decade before black entertainers could begin to make a significant dent in the mass medium of television. - The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, by Earle Brooks and Tim Marsh

Shared for historical purposes. I do not own the rights.

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