<p>I agree with the posters who think Letterman is the better interviewer. He usually doesn’t hold any bars back when he has a controversial guest on the show. There’s never a big white elephant in the room with him.</p>
<p>I have watched Craig Ferguson before and do think he’s funny. He also gets props from me for being a recovered addict and making something of his life.</p>
<p>I just have a feeling late night as we know it is about to change as all the networks scramble to compete with whatever changes NBC makes.</p>
<p>Jimmy Kimmel fan here. He’s the only one I think is really funny. Ferguson is okay, but he has a really set shtick that gets old. I don’t like Leno, Conan, or Fallon. I would watch Bonnie Hunt over any of them.</p>
<p>The problem is that they are going after a shrinking market. Leno appealed to older folks and he had a few segments appealing to younger folks. Our kids loved his monologue and all the funny contests that he had but went to bed when the interviews started. NBC tried to move Conan in as he’s edgier and could get the younger folks but he lost the older folks.</p>
<p>Younger folks are doing a lot more social stuff on the web and playing games and doing things with their friends so I think that late night TV, along with TV in general, is going to lose more and more viewers. More people want to watch shows on their own schedule and there are a few vendors out there that are making that happen.</p>
<p>I’m just as likely to watch Chelsea Lately or Tosh.0 so I’m part of the older shrinking demographic. During the seasons, I use that time to catch up on Entourage or Curb Your Enthusiasm so the time slot is very fluid for me.</p>
<p>I watch Jon Stewart and Colbert regularly (next day around 7pm, don’t watch the 11 - 1130 day of shows) and I don’t bother much with all the other late night hacks. Only watched Leno’s new earlier show once and it was really dull. Then I watched Wanda Sykes out of curiosity and she was horrible! Then I laughed when I saw Leno had her on as a guest - perfect!</p>
<p>Well, looks like NBC just made it official. Their ‘experiment’ with Leno in primetime will not return after the Olympics. Thing is now, how will they fill that time slot?</p>
<p>Another problem with the late night talk shows is that they’re all dependent on ‘interviewing’ ‘celebrities’ who are only really there to hawk their new movies. A whole lot of these actors/actresses are empty-headed, uninteresting, self-absorbed people. I’d like to see one of the shows concentrate on getting actual ‘interesting’ people/segments on rather than yet another movie hawker. The segments where animals are brought on are fun.</p>
<p>ucdad that’s what I like about Letterman, is when he has kid scientists, or stupid human tricks or pet tricks. Or I like to when he has on odd guests – one of the best shows he ever did was with Julia Child and Art Donovan, both of whom started drinking and cooking.</p>
<p>Letterman did some great skits ragging on Jay “Big Jaw” Leno. I wish I’d seen Kimmel.</p>
<p>I agree that Letterman does some great interviews with interesting guests he recently did one with a guy who’d written a book about climate change and came across as really knowledgeable. Having a kid seems to have broadened his perspective a bit.</p>
<p>The creative community in LA is celebrating because the Leno show meant 5 shows could not go into production and that meant a number of pilots weren’t ordered and all that is jobs and opportunities for everyone from caterers to electricians to editors to actors. </p>
<p>NBC’s move was rightly fought by smart affiliates because NBC’s target for Leno ratings was low, really low, and that meant NBC would make money while the affiliates would lose viewers for their major profit centers, the local news. This then meant that fewer viewers would move into Conan’s show, which is what he referred to in his letter - not Leno’s fault, but NBC’s decision to aim for cheap, low ratings. </p>
<p>NBC’s decision was a betrayal of the entire concept of a network. A network is a group of affiliates that contract to run programming from this source. The source, NBC, has an obligation to deliver programming that attracts viewers. NBC instead chose to reduce viewers but still make money for itself by putting an inexpensive, low ratings show in a strip at 10PM. If Leno ran one night a week, that would be a different matter but NBC gave up the prime lead time for the local news for the entire week and that was not only bad business but it calls into question the existence of NBC as an actual network. </p>
<p>I would say that we’ll learn over time that NBC was threatened by affiliates with destruction. If I owned an NBC station, I would be telling them point blank that Leno gets pulled or we’re suing, terminating our contract and moving to another network - or we’re ganging up and taking over NBC and tossing every one of you morons out the door. The people who approved this should be permanently banned from the entertainment industry.</p>
<p>Conan is absolutely correct when he says NBC gave him no time and bad lead-ins. Leno was beaten by Letterman for a long time. It took Jay 2 years to get his legs and it was only when they rebuilt his stage to let him interact with his audience that he started to take off in ratings. Conan is feeling his way, trying to find what works. If he had a better ratings lead-in from the local news (that NBC has been killing), then his ratings would be somewhat better. But more than that, he’d rationally have the time to find his audience, especially given that Dave is getting old.</p>
<p>So NBC is saying that Jay is more valuable than Conan. That’s their decision. I’m not sure it’s the right one unless Jay is willing to commit to 5 years or more. If Jay sticks only for a year or two, then NBC may end up the loser because then Conan will be established elsewhere and The Tonight Show will have 2 solid competitors for the next host. That host will need to establish him or herself in that job and that may not be possible.</p>