Newscaster for New York's WNBC in the 1970s, Tom Snyder (b. May 12, 1936 at Milwaukee, Wisconsin) gained national fame as host of The Tomorrow Show , which aired late-nights after The Tonight Show on NBC from 1973–82. It was a talk-show unlike the usual late-night fare, with Snyder asking hard-hitting questions without pulling punches. When not grilling guests, Tom would often joke around with off-stage crewmen, often breaking out in a distinctive staccato laugh that was the basis of Dan Aykroyd's impersonation of Snyder on Saturday Night Live. The show was cancelled in 1982 to make room for up-and-coming young comedian David Letterman, following a disastrous experiment with turning Tomorrow into a more typical talk show, adding a live audience and a co-host, Rona Barrett , whom Snyder detested.

An older, slightly more mellow Tom returned to virtually the same format on CNBC in the early '90s, adding the opportunity for viewers to call in with their own questions for the show's guests. Meanwhile, Letterman had moved on to CBS and was given control of creating a new show to follow his at 12:35 am; Letterman—who had idolized Snyder for years—hired Snyder in 1995 as host of The Late Late Show. This show aired live on the East Coast and was simulcast to other time zones on radio to allow everyone a chance to call in. (Snyder's CNBC show was taken over, largely unchanged in format, by Charles Grodin.) Snyder left the show in 1999, and the show was reformatted for new host Craig Kilborn.

Tom currently posts regular messages on his own website, colortini.com. A "colortini," according to Tom in the CNBC era, was the drink you should enjoy while watching the show ("Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."). For the CBS show, he redubbed the mythical drink a "simultini."