People

By Guy D. Garcia

There goes Joanie. It was billed as the clash of the late-night titans, but just seven months after Joan Rivers went head to head with her old benefactor Johnny Carson, the star of The Late Show is being dimmed. The acerbic comedian last week became the latest in a long list of contenders who have tried and failed to dethrone the reigning monarch of the midnight airwaves. In response to increasingly disappointing ratings, Fox Broadcasting Co. decided that beginning this week Rivers was through as the regular host, although she may alternate with a roster of as-yet-unnamed co-hosts. As for Carson, he uttered only a terse "I had no comment when she went on the air, and I have no comment now that she's leaving." Rivers took it like a trouper. "Sometimes things just don't work out," she told her audience last Friday after learning the news. "I've been in this business 23 years; I'm going to be in this business another 23 years." Then her guests closed the show by turning over the sofa and festooning the set with toilet paper.