George C. Scott/Joanne Astrow/The Amazing Randi

James Randi explained in a speech at Skepticon 3 that the program was, at the time, filmed two hours in advance to allow for editing and other things that may need to be fixed, and that when the producer saw and heard the infamous tape Peter Popoff that he said to bump the two actresses planned for that night, and to immediately do Randi's segment so it could be edited and shown that night. The producer wanted to tell Johnny about it because Johnny didn't like surprises, but Randi described the potential look on Johnny's face, and the producer went ahead with it. He further went on to tell why he always laughs at the scene at Johnny's reaction to the video, that when Johnny heard Peter Popoff's wife, Johnny exclaimed "Oh, shit!" and covered his mouth, then got the audience to calm down; the aired interview, of course, edits out that moment.

References Dance Fever (1979)