 Early in 1973, Lewis asked McMahon to be his co-host for the entire show – his right hand man – and so the pair united and never separated.Similar to his regular position as announcer and sidekick of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", McMahon was Lewis' announcer, voicing the intros and outros of each segment, welcoming corporate and charitable sponsors with their donations, and calling for a roll of a timpani drum for each million dollar mark passed on the tote board (Johnny Carson himself, a longtime friend of Lewis, surprised viewers by opening the 1970 telethon with a "Tonight Show"-style monologue while Lewis stood backstage – a role that Carson would repeat in 1971 and 1972, until the telethon moved to Las Vegas).McMahon, borrowing from Carson's prognosticating character "Carnac the Magnificent", also made predictions on what the final total of funds raised would be, and from 1970 though 1979, he was spot on many years, missing by as little as thousands of dollars, considering the final tallies.