What I find interesting is how so many people claim to hate Leno, but somehow he dominated Letterman for years. I actually prefer Leno to Letterman, but I like Conan better than all of them, by far. By the way, Craig Ferguson is terrible! I can't watch 30 seconds of that show.
You're an angry young man, aren't you? Fairly bizarre attempts at sarcasm. I didn't say there were no similarities at all. I said that they weren't the same kinds of shows, in my opinion. Chill out. I wasn't attacking you, simply disagreeing. If you don't like being disagreed with, diaries might be more your speed.
LOL! Angry, not all. Just having some fun with you. I thought you were splitting hairs with your skits vs parodies reply so I figured I'd needle you a bit. I wasn't attacking you either, I didn't insult you. I wasn't ranting nor raving. Again, just having some fun. In reading our replies back an forth I would say that you're the one who might have a problem with being disagreed with (at least when someone uses a bizarre attempt at sarcasm to do it). Sounds like I spun you pretty good with my reply. Sorry about that. Anyway, it appears that both our views on this are valid. It seems that the Daily Show is included when you look at the ratings of "Late night TV talk shows" but Wikipedia doesn't included it in it's definition of what a Late night TV talk show is.
I'd like to see Conan on HBO or Showtime or something where he could really be himself. Sometimes I wonder if he's dumbing himself down too much.
I doubt they'd pay him anything close to what NBC is now but you're right. Give him the freedom of HBO or Showtime and he'd be hilarious.
I agree with you, it is nearly the same format. But I strongly disagree with Jon Stewart being smarter than Conan or Letterman. Stewart looks smart cause he doesn't have to do anything except make comedy and ask questions and not have to come up with any real answers. I enjoy the Daily Show but most of the time Jon Stewart pisses me off cause he portrays himself like he knows what he is talking about. He literally is just a comedian and doesnt know anything more than someone who passed high school "Current Affairs"
I cant even watch this, he is so not funny when talented writers aren't writing fake stories for him. [video=youtube;j1ehUN9UgWg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ehUN9UgWg[/video]
Okay. Usually when someone writes a post stuffed with sarcasm, it sounds bitter or angry to me. Glad you weren't either one! And no, I certainly don't have any problem being disagreed with. I simply wrote a very mild disagreement to what you said about TDS vs. other late shows and your reply seemed over the top (stuff like "Yes, clearly it was wrong of me," "You're right, there's no similarities what so ever" and "Please forgive me")...you might see how that sounds a little upset and hyperbolic (since you completely changed what I said, for the sake of sarcasm). Anyway, just explaining how I saw it. Clearly it's all good.
This is the biggest TV mistake in at least a decade. Leno went prime time only 4 months ago, and the network already gives up. I expected Leno to get the variety show treatment. The last variety show was Dolly in the 1980s, but they were plentiful before then (Smothers Brothers, Gary Moore, Ed Sullivan, Sonny & Cher, etc., etc.). NONE of the following have ever happened before. 1. Afraid they'll lose another Letterman, NBC announces that O'Brien will replace Leno in 4 years. No one ever tries to predict that far in advance, and if someone is worth starring in his own show, a network keeps it quiet or their competitors will steal him. That's why no such announcement is ever made 4 years in advance. 2. The host of a late-night show moves to prime time. This was often proposed for Carson, but he wouldn't bite. He knew the risk and he liked the subversive rebelliousness he enjoyed at that hour that he would lose. 3. The same program is shown 5 nights per week. It's not just a boring half-hour, it's a sleep-inducing full hour 10 pm show. That's 5 repetitive hours per week, not 2 1/2. Combine those 3 unique events into this 1 short-lived event, and you have a supernova-sized error. Heads should roll, but apparently they won't. A far closer similarity is to the slow exit of Dick Cavett. When he couldn't beat Carson, ABC made him go every other night with Jack Paar. Later both were cancelled. It was humiliating for Cavett and his career died. That's the prognosis for Conan if he has to share time with this 12:05 stuff. He'll soon be cancelled altogether. More NBC stations show Tonight than CBS stations show Late Night. That's why Tonight gets higher ratings. It's been that way forever (probably back to Merv Griffin).
Really? Letterman himself seems to think differently. Here is a very interesting interview he did for Rolling Stone magazine. [From Issue 1061 — September 18, 2008]
The NY Post says Conan would leave and probably go to Fox. Still talk of Jerry Seinfeld eventually replacing Leno.
Then why did Letterman dominate Jay until Hugh Grant appeared on his show after the whole hooker ordeal?
Nothing in your excerpt contradicts what I said. He would look like he's making excuses if he gave the reason about the differing number of stations, so he didn't. Dave's lead would have been even bigger if not for the disparity in stations carrying him. ------------- I read the reason about the number of TV stations in a couple of different places a few years ago. I don't remember where. I don't watch the 2 shows for more than a couple of minutes now, but I started watching Johnny in 1967. I have many memories of funny incidents on the shows of Carson, Joey Bishop, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, Cavett/Parr, etc. That last one didn't last, and a Leno/O'Brien juxtaposition wouldn't either. It doesn't work when they share time. Conan knows this and I doubt that he'll accept it.
