As a sometime insomniac, I had my late night television viewing down to a science: David Letterman at 11:30, Conan O'Brien at 12:3o, and ESPN News unti I'd finally fall asleep. Then Conan had to get all "careery" and take over The Tonight Show at 11:30, going up against Dave. I'm conflicted now! Damn it, who will I watch?
To a lot of younger people, David Letterman is just the cranky old bastard who always got trounced in the ratings by nice guy Jay Leno. To me, and a lot of people my age, Letterman was the best talk show host in the history of television. The man was my comedic hero when I was a teenager (and for years thereafter). If you watched his old 12:30 program on NBC, you saw someone reinvent the talk show format, both recognizing and embracing the utter stupidity of show business and celebrity culture.
Is David Letterman as funny and groundbreaking as he used to be? No. But he's still plenty funny, in my opinion; and he can actually interview people, which is apparently a lost art.
Conan O'Brien is simply fucking hilarious, though. At least he was at 12:30. If he doesn't change too much to conform to a larger audience it'll make for a tough decision for me. I'll probably go with whichever show has Jessica Alba as a guest that night.
-On a related subject, has anyone seen Jimmy Fallon's show? God, it is BRUTAL. Did anyone NOT see this coming? When you saw Jimmy Fallon suck on Saturday Night Live and steal two hours of your life with his horrid movies, did you think "This guy should host a talk show"? No? That's why you aren't a highly paid network executive.
To a lot of younger people, David Letterman is just the cranky old bastard who always got trounced in the ratings by nice guy Jay Leno. To me, and a lot of people my age, Letterman was the best talk show host in the history of television. The man was my comedic hero when I was a teenager (and for years thereafter). If you watched his old 12:30 program on NBC, you saw someone reinvent the talk show format, both recognizing and embracing the utter stupidity of show business and celebrity culture.
Is David Letterman as funny and groundbreaking as he used to be? No. But he's still plenty funny, in my opinion; and he can actually interview people, which is apparently a lost art.
Conan O'Brien is simply fucking hilarious, though. At least he was at 12:30. If he doesn't change too much to conform to a larger audience it'll make for a tough decision for me. I'll probably go with whichever show has Jessica Alba as a guest that night.
-On a related subject, has anyone seen Jimmy Fallon's show? God, it is BRUTAL. Did anyone NOT see this coming? When you saw Jimmy Fallon suck on Saturday Night Live and steal two hours of your life with his horrid movies, did you think "This guy should host a talk show"? No? That's why you aren't a highly paid network executive.
11 Comments:
Jimmy Fallon's show is physically painful to watch, a collossal one hour suckfest.
I caught the first and that was it - DeNiro must have owed him a HUGE favor to be the first guest on that trainwreck.
Ah, but De Niro himself is often considered the worst talk-show guest ever. And Conan O'Brien was once considered the worst host in the history of late-night TV who wouldn't last a year.
So either he'll turn into the next Conan, or the last guy who hosted Weekend Update to have a late-night show. Oh, the suspense...
Meant to say Jimmy Fallon in that last paragraph, just to clarify. Man, it's late.
Jimmy Fallon is the Dane Cook of late night TV show hosts.
No one has mentioned Craig Ferguson. Love that guy! He is the absolute best! I tried Jimmy Fallon to just see what all the todo was about but couldn't even get beyond the first couple of minutes.
Letterman is still the one I watch then followed by Craig.
Letterman's career has been incredibly long. I remember sitting down to watch his show with college roommates in 1983.
I remember watching Conan O'Brien's show with a friend when he took over for Letterman; my friend and I agreed that it was painfully unfunny. Fortunately, it improved.
have you tried chamomile tea?
The difference between Conan and Jimmy Fallon is that Conan was an unknown commodity. He was a writer with no broadcast experience at all. Jimmy Fallon was on TV, sucked at it, and was rewarded for sucking.
Tie breaker goes to the Masturbating Bear. Paul Schaefer can't hold a candle to that bear.
Craig Ferguson is indeed great. He once slowed down a Bush speech to where he sounded incredibly intoxicated (or even more so). When Bill Maher said that DNA testing disproves Creationism, Craig said, "That's only if you believe in DNA testing."
If there's a just world, Craig will eventually reach Jimmy Fallon levels of fame.
Craig Ferguson seriously rocks.
I love Dave, but I can't wait until Dave retires so I can watch Craig regularly - I have a hard time staying up late enough to watch him. And I'm one of his cheeky monkeys.
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