re: Spinoff: Conan is the best late night host on TV

Looking back, I think Conan took over The Tonight Show a little too early. That 10:30 audience just wasn't ready for Conan's style of humor. Leno had a much older audience and of course they were going to flock to Letterman because he was a known commodity. Of course having Leno on at 9:00 didn't help matters. It just wasn't a smooth transition. Leno clearly wasn't ready to leave and Conan wasn't quite ready for for The Tonight Show. I think Fallon would've failed if it had been the same situation. At the least, they could've given Conan time to grow into the show like they did for Leno.

Colbert is a mystery to me. He keeps trying to double down on being ultra-political. Meyers is douche who is desperately trying to become a Jon Stewart/John Oliver wannabe. He's an embarrassment to the Late Night chair.

To sum it up: Carson is still the King

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He uses it as a vehicle to tease out funny anecdotes from his guests (all prepared beforehand I'm sure) and to allow them to plug whatever it is they are plugging in exchange for their participation in some silly game. It's actually brilliant. Most people don't want to see the host grill or even perturb the guest celebrity. They want to see them be chummy and excited about talking and to maybe give a glimpse of the celebrity's "life" through some fun anecdote

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I hate Fallon but this is the whole point of all late night talk shows.

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Please...don't blame Conan.

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Letterman had a FIELD DAY during that two week period. That was the most fire he had during the last years of his run.

For those who don't know the reference.

Kimmel was a hoot as well. Remember when he did an entire monologue impersonating Jay? He even had his band leader do the lame guitar riff after every single joke. And then there was the time he gave Jay the business during Jay's "10 at 10" satellite feed segment. The debacle really brought out the best in everybody.

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Kimmel was a hoot as well. Remember when he did an entire monologue impersonating Jay? He even had his band leader do the lame guitar riff after every single joke. And then there was the time he gave Jay the business during Jay's "10 at 10" satellite feed segment. The debacle really brought out the best in everybody.

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God, Kimmel killed the 10 at 10: LINK

Best line, when he asked what the best prank he ever pulled:

"The best prank I ever pulled was I told a guy that 5 years from now, I'm going to give you my show, and then when the 5 years came, I gave it to him and took it back almost instantly."

The "Lonnie Donegan" reference to Jimmy Fallon still makes me giggle. I looked it up and Lonnie Donegan was a real British singer back in the 60's. The more you know.

From what I remember the NBC local stations were upset at the lower lead in numbers from Conan. Also it's tough to feel bad for Conan he got millions to go away.

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Also it's tough to feel bad for Conan he got millions to go away.

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Yeah, at the end of the day the guy got paid 45 million to not work. But The Tonight Show was his dream and it sucks seeing someone's dream unfairly snatched away like that. Also, Conan was a career NBC guy starting all the way back as a writer for SNL.

Still think CBS should've picked Conan over Colbert to replace Dave. Colbert had potential but just blows.

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From what I remember the NBC local stations were upset at the lower lead in numbers from Conan.

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They were upset about the lower lead-ins from Leno's 10pm show. Conan followed the local news and also got negatively impacted due to the cascading effect.

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I don't think Leno owed anyone anything.

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Normally I would agree, but the fact that Leno went on the air and blessed Conan as his successor and claimed he would do his part to ensure a smooth transition colors the posture. He acted like he was cool with handing the show over, and based on that Conan waited his five years and relocated himself and his staff from one coast to another.

For Leno to decide to stay and furthermore participate in the weird 10pm experiment that cancelled five hours of well-rated primetime and undermined his successor (both from a ratings perspective and via booking war) all the while talking up the affiliates about wishing to return to 11:30...that's just a sleazy, classless move. It didn't help that he constantly portrayed himself as some shrugging, hapless stooge just doing NBC's bidding. I lost track of the amount of times he would put on his phony blue collar act and muse about how he doesn't use agents and managers like those other showbiz guys do.

If Leno had said straight up, from the start, "Hey Conan, I wasn't looking to retire, so get ready for war," he wouldn't have gotten all the hate. It's the duplicity that earned him the flack more than the actual ambition to take the show back. The reason I would argue he owed Conan was because he did the whole song and dance about not wanting any trouble with the transition. If he'd said how he actually felt, who knows? Conan might not have wanted The Tonight Show as much, or he would have taken precautions like trying to keep the show in New York as Fallon has done.

Miss when he did Late night.