Faye Emerson Became the ‘First Lady of Television’ During the Medium’s Early Days. But Her Groundbreaking Success as a Late-Night Host Is Largely Forgotten Today

She rose to fame in the mid-20th century with “The Faye Emerson Show” on CBS, interviewing luminaries and speaking directly to viewers

Elyssa Goodman | Freelance Writer

May 22, 2026 2:08 p.m.

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In just 15 minutes, Faye Emerson captivated television audiences with her wit and charm. The actress-turned-host interviewed guests and responded to viewer mail on her CBS program, “The Faye Emerson Show,” which ran from 1949 to 1951.

Thanks to the 15-minute program’s run and other hosting gigs, Emerson earned the nickname, “The First Lady of Television.”

Though the show was short-lived, it “was one of the first television programs extending into the evening hours,” wrote Maureen Mauk, visiting research fellow at York University’s Institute for Research on Digital Literacies, in 2020. “Clearly happy with the show’s pioneering time slot, Emerson stated, ‘Up to that time, they didn’t think anybody paid any attention to 11 o’clock shows. Our program sort of changed the thinking.’”

Despite her trailblazing success as a host, Emerson is rarely mentioned today among the founders or leaders of the late-night format.

“We admire so much right now what Jimmy Kimmel can do, and what Colbert can do, how they can carry a conversation across so many different media landscapes, from talking about a new musician to launching a kind of a special interest, human nature story, to jumping into politics, to talking to famous people, to talking to children and stupid pet tricks,” Mauk tells Smithsonian magazine. “That was her. She could do all those things just fluidly and brilliantly.”

Before becoming a television host, Emerson was known for starring in noir films, such as Lady Gangster (1942) and Danger Signal (1945). She eventually left Hollywood for New York after marrying Elliott Roosevelt, son of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1944. There, she ingrained herself in New York society and continued to find a place in showbusiness, working in theater and radio.

“Various narratives exist as to how ‘The Faye Emerson Show’ launched,” Mauk wrote. “Before the show’s launch, CBS recruited Emerson to narrate local 15-minute fashion shows in the fall of 1948; her big break came after being called to fill in for another CBS show host, Diana Barrymore, who had fallen ill. In this account, Emerson was considered a ‘literal overnight success.’” (Barrymore’s own show was reportedly canceled before it aired.)

Mauk tells CBS 58 that Emerson was “the first late-night television talk show host, and she defined the genre.” She even had comedian Steve Allen as a guest on her program before he went on to host the first iteration of the famed “Tonight Show.”

Late-night talk shows began with Faye Emerson on CBS

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Her gentle, entrancing nature is on full display during a mail-reading episode from 1951. She greets her audience by looking directly at the camera and saying, “Hello, it’s Emerson again. My, you certainly have a lot to say in your letters.”

Emerson believed you could be both beautiful and brilliant, Mauk says, and she was versatile in her topic areas. She could talk about the Korean War with journalists as much as she could address questions about her wedding ring and clothes. As a host during the mid-20th century, she made space for women’s voices in a culture that didn’t often acknowledge their power or importance.

“She had a great fashion sense,” says Christine Becker, film, television and theater scholar at the University of Notre Dame. “There’s ways in which she was marked as what we might call an influencer today. She was also really smart, and she was known for that. She was basically an intellectual. She cared about politics; she cared about social issues and would speak about them regularly. … Women who got a platform in popular culture and film and television didn’t usually take that route.”

According to Mauk, Emerson was once asked to run for office but declined. “Emerson, after being diagnosed with stomach cancer, drafted her own obituary and, in it, highlighted her invitation to run for a 1960 congressional seat representing New York,” Mauk wrote. “While she declined the opportunity, it clearly represented a proud moment and nod to her political acumen.”

In the same episode answering viewer mail, she addressed a man who wrote to her after she interviewed foreign correspondents. He commented, “Better stick to the plunging neckline, Faye; politics is not for little girls.”

She responded, “I think you have a perfect right to say what you think and to tell me about it, but I don’t think that’s true altogether. I think politics is everybody’s business, and I’m not a very little girl either. So, if you don’t mind, every now and then at least, I’m going to do a little thinking about it. I’ll try not to jam my opinions down your throat, though. But any rate, thanks for your interest.”

Emerson went on to host other shows: Fifteen with Faye; Faye and Skitch, with her third husband, musician Skitch Henderson; and Wonderful Town, a travel show. She was popular enough to warrant two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and her own merchandise, including coloring books—one of which currently resides in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History—and paper dolls.

In 1963, she retired, leaving showbusiness on her own terms. Emerson remained close with her former mother-in-law, Eleanor Roosevelt, and promised Roosevelt before she passed that she would participate in 1963’s March on Washington, which she did. Afterward, Emerson moved to Spain, where she lived among artists and threw parties. She died in 1983 at 65.

The work of Mauk, Becker and Mary Huelsbeck, assistant director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, is bringing Emerson’s work to the light. And some episodes of the show are now available to the public on YouTube.

Slowly, more people are learning about her.

“She had this presence that you just don’t see a lot of—then and now,” Mauk says. “She was multifaceted and she was demanding and she was smart and she was kind, and she was challenging the status quo. … I can’t believe we let her go and almost forgot about her.”

Elyssa Goodman | Read More

Elyssa Goodman is a New York-based writer and photographer and the author of Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City.