1. Conan - hands-down funniest host on tv - great creative team
2. Craig - also very funny, but could use better guests
3. Leno - could be funnier - has watered-down his humor for his lowest-common denominator audience - I hope Conan does not do the same thing
4. Letterman - used to be the best host, but now he is a grouchy curmudgeon, going through the motions - Paul Schaefer annoys me
5. Fallon - needs to gain confidence - Roots are the best TV band ever
6. Kimmel - frat-boy humor
7. Daly - never seen it
Do Jon Stewart and Colbert belong on this list?
Extremely accurate list. I'd switch Letterman and Leno just because Letterman was once absolutely brilliant, and Leno, in my opinion has never really risen above 'pretty good'. If you're looking just at right now though, then yeah, you probably have the order right.
Watched the finale last night, it was pretty decent. I was impressed with how long they had Conan on there for. I've always liked Leno(more than Letterman anyway), but I've never loved him. He's not bad, he's just too old school for me. His comedy to me is just from another generation, an earlier generation than from what I grew up with(ie his love of the Rodney Dangerfield one-liner. They're funny, but its obviously old school). I can see why an older audience likes him.
Just watching him and Conan together last night side-by-side showed me how much I prefer Conan. Thank God he's finally back, I missed that pale SOB!
I really want Conan to revive the Walker Texas Ranger Lever. He is still the best late night host, although I do think he was much better with Andy Richter on the show.
Sainters7, you (and any other Conan fans, really) should check out his interview on Inside the Actors Studio. It's floating around on YouTube and wouldn't be very hard to find. Great interview on his beginnings and just how he made it to Late Night.
Sainters7, you (and any other Conan fans, really) should check out his interview on Inside the Actors Studio. It's floating around on YouTube and wouldn't be very hard to find. Great interview on his beginnings and just how he made it to Late Night.
Thanks for the heads up! I actually just finished watching it, very good interview. I see NBC's up to their old tricks, as parts 4, 6 and 7 were all removed. Idiots...
I've always really like Leno. Letterman is so bad he's unwatchable and always has been.
I really like Conan but I don't think his schtick is going to fly with Leno's crowd. People like my father think Conan is a goofball and an idiot but I love him. I just don't think Masturbating Bear is going to make it to the Tonight Show.
in fact, many of the segments featured on "Late Night" during O'Brien's tenure will be joining the host for the cross-country move to L.A. - including the Masturbating Bear, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the Year 2000, along with plenty of produced comedy sketches.
I've always really like Leno. Letterman is so bad he's unwatchable and always has been.
I really like Conan but I don't think his schtick is going to fly with Leno's crowd. People like my father think Conan is a goofball and an idiot but I love him. I just don't think Masturbating Bear is going to make it to the Tonight Show.
That's exactly what I was talking about in a previous post of mine in this thread, about finding Leno's brand of humour to be of a previous generation. It's interesting how generational humour is. I'm sure in 20 years when I have older kids they'll think old repeats of Conan are stupid, and will prefer the new Tonight Show host and his newer brand of humour, who I probably won't like at all. The good thing for people like your dad(and mine too) is Leno will still have a show at 10pm, which all these people can watch.
I bet alot of Johnny Carson's followers didn't take to Leno when he started, but he still managed to find a very solid fanbase. I'm sure it'll be the exact same way with Conan. I bet there's tons of(probably younger) people in L.A. dying to see Conan in the new Tonight Show. I think Conan will be absolutely fine. Give it 2-3 years and I bet he's as big(bigger?) as Leno is now.
Conan has aged too. Late Night was trying to capture that college crowd that Letterman had. Most of the low budget skits and jokes have all been retired including Masturbating Bear (frozen in carbonite and escaped).
I think everyone is moving down. When Leno goes to 10pm, his fans will go to 10pm. And the same with Conan. Leno fans are getting older and wont stay up anymore to see Conan. And now Conan fans get to go to bed earlier as a lot of them have jobs coming out of college.
