Hot Seat was a Saturday late night syndicated, politically oriented, though often satirical and comedic television talk-show that began in the early 1980s, hosted by conservative commentator Wally George.
In many ways, Hot Seat inspired and was the precursor of other similar shows hosted by Morton Downey Jr., Jerry Springer, and Stephen Colbert.
At the height of its popularity in the mid- and late-1980s, fans of the show would wait for several hours to get a choice spot among the studio's 80 audience seats, where they waved U.S. flags and chanted, "Wal-ly!
This ever increasing circus atmosphere became an integral part of the show's appeal; for instance, when Wally yelled "9-9-9", the fans in the studio would holler back "FIVE THOUSAND!"
Succeeding Kennedy was Bill Bancroft, a portly mustached man who wore glasses, and a security guard at Patrol One in Orange County.
In 1984, the theme song was Eyewitness News, which was part of the Universal Production Music library (formerly Killer Tracks), and was composed by Craig Palmer.
[9] Several soon-to-be stars made some of their first television appearances on this show,[citation needed] including disc jockey Jim "the Poorman" Trenton, "rape rock" band The Mentors—particularly lead singer/drummer El Duce, Wrestler Charli Haynes, Wrestler Dee "Queen Kong" Booher, Wrestler Renee Vicary, punk band Rebel Rebel, Playboy model Becky LeBeau, rock band The Offspring, and future USA Up All Night hostesses Rhonda Shear.
In December 1992,[10] due to a decline in advertising revenue and layoffs of 11 full-time and 10 part-time employees at the network's news operations, George stopped doing first-run episodes with a live studio audience.