Friday Night! with Ralph Benmergui was a Canadian television variety show, which aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1992 to 1993. In its first season, the show aired at 10 p.m., following Prime Time News. In its second season, it aired at 11 p.m. A variety show is a show with a variety of acts, often including music and comedy skits, especially on television. ... The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known by the abbreviation CBC, is Canadas government-owned radio and television broadcaster. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Prime Time News was a Canadian nightly newscast which aired on CBC television from 1992 to 1995. ...

The show was hosted by Ralph Benmergui, and the house band was The Look People. It was one hour long and had an American late-night talk show format: an opening monologue followed by "comedy" sketches, guest interviews, and musical performances. Notable guests on the show included Céline Dion and Leonard Cohen. Ralph Benmergui is a Canadian television and radio personality. ... The Look People were a Canadian alternative rock band in the 1980s and 1990s. ... Céline Marie Claudette Dion, OC, OQ (born March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Québec, Canada) is a Grammy, Juno and Oscar award-winning pop singer and songwriter. ... Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter. ...

The show was a ratings failure from the beginning, capturing only one-third of the audience that the CBC had in its timeslot the previous year. The show was nonetheless renewed for a second season, but was cancelled mid-season. Its final show was on New Year's Eve, 1993. The audience decline has been attributed Benmergui's hosting style, its poor writing, its inability to attract high-calibre guests, and to the overall failure of the network's radically revamped prime time schedule in the years Friday Night! was on the air.

Benmergui subsequently moved to CBC Newsworld, hosting the afternoon talk show Benmergui Live. The CBC subsequently developed another variety series, Rita and Friends, which began airing in the fall of 1994. CBC Newsworld is a Canadian 24-hour cable news television channel operated by the CBC. It broadcasts into over 10 million homes nation-wide, as well as into some northern states in the U.S. It is the worlds third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in... Benmergui Live was a Canadian television talk show, which aired daily on CBC Newsworld in the 1990s. ... Rita and Friends was a Canadian television variety show, which aired on the CBC from 1994 to 1997. ...