The Dinah Shore Show (1951-1957)

The Dinah Shore Show was an American variety show sponsored by General Motors' Chevrolet division. For most of the program's run, it aired from 7:30 to 7:45 Eastern Time on Tuesday and Thursday nights, rounding out the time slot which featured the network's regular evening newscast (John Cameron Swayze's Camel News Caravan), which, like all such programs of the era, was then only 15 minutes in length. The program, broadcast live, featured Dinah Shore, who had come to prominence in her home state as a radio singer and the first Jewish cheerleader at Vanderbilt University before being "discovered" and subsequently appearing on national radio. She made a relatively easy transition to TV, as noted by the length of this program's run. As was the case with many live musical and variety programs of the era, it did not air during the summer months.

During this program's final season, it was reduced to appearing on Thursday nights only, with the Tuesday night slot going to The Jonathan Winters Show. However, during this season, Shore was given an opportunity to host a full hour-long variety show on Friday nights, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, which was to run, on varying nights and timeslots, for a total of seven seasons. The 15-minute Thursday night program was discontinued following the 1956-57 season, along with all other such series (although network evening newscasts were not expanded to the half-hour format until 1963).