The Johnny Carson Foundation Makes Huge Surprise Donation To University Of Nebraska Lincoln

The gift will be valued at $20 million, which will help the school to start an academic program and educational facility focused on “emerging media.” The money will go towards renovating what used to be the University of Nebraska Bookstore into the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, where students will study components of new media that the school says will have application in a diverse range of fields, including “filmmaking, game design, television production, theater, advertising, social media, business, architecture, science, education and agriculture.” I don’t see talk show hosting in there, but presumably it won’t hurt in that arena either. This is only the latest gift made by Johnny Carson and his Johnny Carson Foundation to various institutions in Nebraska, Carson’s home state. He attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln as a student before embarking on what would become one of the most iconic (and lucrative) entertainment careers of all time, hosting The Tonight Show for 30 years and becoming a legend in his own time. As for the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, according to a statement from the school, it’s scheduled to open sometime in 2018. The foundation’s president Allan Alexander also had this to say about the occasion: Today’s talk show hosts take note: Make some wise investments while you can, and you’ll have plenty of buildings named after you after you’re gone.