Wilson's clout allowed him to get both the new breakout performers (such as The Jackson 5, Roberta Flack, Sandy Duncan, Lily Tomlin, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Albert Brooks, Lola Falana and Melba Moore all of whom became very popular during this period) as well as established singers.
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African-American singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Pointer Sisters, Charley Pride, The Temptations, and The Supremes appeared on the program, as well as many contemporary white entertainers.
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It also broke new ground in American television by using a 'Theatre-in-the-Round' stage format, with the audience seated on all sides of a circular performance area (with some seats located behind the sketch sets on occasion).
Woodrow Wilson | The Tonight Show | Late Show with David Letterman | The Oprah Winfrey Show | The Ellen DeGeneres Show | The Daily Show | talk show | Show Boat | Harold Wilson | That '70s Show | Pete Wilson | Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | The Ed Sullivan Show | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | The Andy Griffith Show | The Howard Stern Show | The Early Show | Brian Wilson | The Rush Limbaugh Show | The Cosby Show | Wilson | The Mary Tyler Moore Show | The Sean Hannity Show | Edmund Wilson | The Drew Carey Show | The Late Late Show | Chappelle's Show | The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson | The Dr. Oz Show |
The phrase "What you see is what you get", from which the acronym derives, was a catchphrase popularized by Flip Wilson's drag persona "Geraldine" (from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in the late 1960s and then on The Flip Wilson Show until 1974).