Good Night, Joey; Hello, Dick

"About a week ago I asked ABC for a little time off," Joey Bishop wisecracked to his studio audience one night last week, "but this is ridiculous." Joey will get the last 13 months of his contract off, ending a hopeless 2 1/2-year challenge to NBC's Johnny Carson. The coup de grace was the entry of CBS's Merv Griffin into the late-night competition in August. At last count, Johnny was attracting 33% of the audience to Merv's 18% and Joey's 14%.

Joey's permanent replacement will be Dick Cavett, a triumph with the reviewers (TIME, June 20), if not with the ratings in two earlier ABC talk shows. But one was aired mornings, the other in prime evening time, and the hope is that in the late-night slot Cavett will finally find an audience up to his level of sophistication.

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