Deadline
WME Signs Carson Entertainment Group
By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday September 19, 2012
WME will represent Carson Entertainment Group in all areas. CEG controls the licensing rights to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, a library of archival footage from Carson’s 30 years as a late night host. WME and CEG are exploring opportunities for the material in television, film, stage and digital platforms.
Carson’s nephew and CEG President Jeff Sotzing began an effort three years ago to digitize and catalog the entire Tonight Show library from 1962 to 1992 – over 3,300 hours of footage.
Earlier this year, Sotzing and CEG launched a Facebook game and Carnac app with MediaMine, and they recently collaborated with filmmaker Peter Jones on his American Masters documentary King Of Late Night.
In his career, Carson interviewed more than 22,000 guests and helped launch the careers of David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres, Joan Rivers, Garry Shandling, Bette Midler, Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, and others.
