Best Late Night Talk Show Host

[PapaGeorgio]

Poll, Discuss below.

[What Would Kevin Do?]

Conan, by far. He's the only one I can watch and actually find consistantly funny and entertaining. Jon Stewart excluded, since I don't consider him a late night host by default, so he's exempt. The only person who even comes close is Carson, who in theory should win by default but he's before my time.

[Heros Welcome]

Conan, to me is THE MAN. Always felt he was the funniest, loved the presentation of the show. Also love how he makes fun of himself for not having such high tech quality equipment.

Plus the man went through with making an actually site out of HornyManatee.com, which was hilarious. Conan FTW

[Heros Welcome]

I know he is not on the list, thank god, but I would like to throw out there how I can't believe that Carson Daly has had a talk show for over 6 years now I believe. That is just a crime and the man should be shot for having such a god awful program.

[PapaGeorgio]

I would like to point out that Johnny Carson is THE talk show host. Like really shouldn't even have made the poll cause I realize he is the greatest. But besides that, I do give props to Conan for having that something. But yeah, Carson just destroys everyone.

[Avenger]

Letterman is the current best and always will be until he leaves.

Young people don't really watch his show and so don't understand it, but in his prime he was more than Conan has ever been and to me is still so much more entertaining. His dry humor is fantastic, his interviewing skills are phenomenal when he wants to use them.

Carson said it himself, Letterman is the best - Carson's heir.

[Jeritron]

lol Carson Daly

[Jura]

Yeah Letterman has never appealed to me. I can't watch his show in entirety. Leno is good sometimes but If he doesn't have good guests then I probably won't watch. For Conan I watch even if he has guests I've never heard of. It's like the old people watch Letterman, the in betweeners watch Leno and the younger crowd watches Conan. Also you forgot Jimmy Kimmel.

[thedamndest]

Voted for Conan, but totally forgot about Letterman. I believe I would have voted for Letterman but I guess now I will never know.

[PapaGeorgio]

Knew I was forgetting a few, just typed in a random number for the poll and filled it up though.

Also shame on all of your for your lack of respect for Johnny Carson. I hereby take claim to being TPWW's #1 Johnny Carson fan.

[Triple A]

Conan out of those. If you included Stewart though you should have put Colbert in there. I personally think he is a funnier person than Conan. Way better at improvising and stuff. Conan is funny but he gets so repetitious. Has been doing the same exact things for like 29357 years in a row.

[PapaGeorgio]

Yeah meant to put Colbert in there too, should have planned the poll out a little better.

[slextremely]

Conan and Letterman, that's all i watch. Too young to have an opinion of Carson. I think right now Letterman has the best show going, but Conan is the better host. Leno just sucks.

[Avenger]

Letterman Love :love:

[Jeritron]

Conan and Letterman, that's all i watch. Too young to have an opinion of Carson. I think right now Letterman has the best show going, but Conan is the better host. Leno just sucks.


I disagree. I think Letterman's show is inferior to Leno's. At one point back in the mid or early 90s, Letterman had the better show and was more in touch with younger people. However, now, I feel, he can't hold a candle to Leno's show and hasn't been able to for quite some time.

Conan is beyond amazing, and the best in my mind. But I realize that he has unorthodox and bizarre humor that likely doesn't appeal to older, or a lot of traditional audiences.
I expect he'll adapt much closer to the current Leno format when he takes over for him. He'll still be amazing and adapt well I think, but other than a few classic gags he'll likely leave his current show behind and tone down his slapstick and weird humor in favor for the Carson-Leno style.
Of course, there'll always be a little bit of the Conan-ness there too.

Should be very interesting to see him take over for Leno

[slextremely]

Letterman's show has improved drasticly from say a year or so ago. Lot's of bizare random things happen i dig that. It's like they cleaned house with the writers or something. I have never ever enjoyed Leno the only thing i like about that show is the camera booth skit where some voice tells the people to do odd things, at least i think that's Leno.

[PapaGeorgio]

I'm very pro Carson. While I was to young to really appreciate him in some aspects, I got like any dvds I can own of his stuff. I do recall seeing some episodes as a child, but I was about 6 when he retired so yeah.

As for the rest, I do agree Letterman is the true Carson replacement. Find Letterman to be a lot better than Leno, but then again never watch much of either to be honest.

For Conan O'Brien, I thing he has done an amazing job doing something different. Just overall he has created his own tone for his show and it works very well. As Jeritron said, it shall be interesting to see how much he tones down his stuff when he gets the Tonight Show.

But overall, Carson revolutionized it all in so many ways, and he will always be THE talk show host in my books. At times his show accounted for 1/5 of NBC's annual profits I believe. Also his Tonight Show reign is highest grossing show of all time. While those don't necessarily reflect quality, it sure does make you wonder how he was able to do something so right.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Johnny Carson actually almost got my vote. I haven't seen much of his stuff, but he was just the guy. I feel like he is the God of Late Night, and all the others are fighting over Jesus.

Conan O'Brien out of the guys listed. That man is a genius. Probably both in terms of intellect and comedy. The man wrote the monorail episode of The Simpsons, for crying out loud. He's great at improvising with and talking to guests, and he's actually a genuinely funny person. His best stuff actually comes when he is just out on the street talking to random people.

Stephen Colbert is great. I like him, but he's just behind Conan, I feel. He's got a lot of great energy going for him, and he is a funny guy, no doubt about it. I don't really like the whole political satire talk show concept, though. If I could choose anyone to replace Conan when he moves to Los Angeles, it would be him.

David Letterman has never really appealed to him. He just always struck me as overrated. He supported Conan when no one else did, though, so that earns him points. I did watch more of him recently, and he actually struck me as funny, though. Sort of like he used to be a great comedian back in his day, but now he has nothing left to prove so just sticks to what he knows.

Jay Leno gets far too much shit. Ah well, he's rich enough to not pay it any mind, I guess. I find he ruins his own jokes. He has brilliant writers working for him, and I guess that the harmless comedian/nice guy at is a part of his shtick, but part of his shtick should be to also be funny.

I have a bizarre and unfounded dislike of Jon Stewart. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all that, but I just don't find him funny. He goes for broke, and a lot of the time he gets nothing. Without writers during the strike, he was apparently hopeless. To the point where he needed Colbert and Conan to pull him through. I also dislike that political satire show layout. Anyone could take the fumbling of someone in politics, and then tap a pen against their chin before saying something sarcastic. Anyone. I have been mildly amused by Stewart before, and I think he would actually do really well in a comic acting environment, with people to plan out everything he does, but he should be thanking God for the miracle that he has a TV show that hasn't been canceled this time, and that has actually won as many Emmys as The Daily Show.

I don't know, maybe I've missed all his shining moments, and only seen the worst of him, but I just think Stewart is like America's answer to Rove McManus, an Australian talk show host. He's a lovely guy, and I wish him well, but he has one show a week and even then he isn't funny. Nice guy, he could do some great things for comedy if he produces TV shows, and the like, but I just cannot for the life of me understand how he is funny. Yet so many people watch him and say "he makes me rofl."

Garry Shandling is pretty great, but I haven't actually seen him host. Just seen him elsewhere.

When Conan goes to The Tonight Show, I think Conan is going to do something very risky. I don't think he will change much at all. I can actually see him going even more "Conan-esque" with his stuff. He does seem to be getting a lot more restrained these days, as he grows into a performer who knows his audience, knows he is funny, and just goes out there and does whatever, and it works. But, I feel the change will ruffle Conan's feathers a bit. He seems to have the most fun and get the most energy out of his crowd when he goes nuts, and I think we'll see some of that as he plays with his new toy when he gets it.

I also remember Conan's tribute to Johnny Carson, and how Conan talked about Carson telling him to be himself. To just be himself, and never betray that. Conan respected Carson so much, and he is such a down to earth and intelligent guy, I don't think Conan is going to lose sight of what brought him to the dance.

After all, I think a lot more people are going to be going to the studio to see The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien because of Conan O'Brien more so than because of "The Tonight Show." It's the talk show, yes, I don't mean to sell it short, but I can't imagine a Leno fan plunking down a lot of money to go to see Conan just because it's where Leno used to tape.

I think Conan is going to shock a lot of people by turning the crazy act up, rather than down. I also expect him to write his ass off for those first few shows, to really hammer himself into the audience, and get the connection he needs with them so he doesn't freak them out if he loses his mind later. I can imagine him feeling like he has to stand still a lot more, but I think he's becoming comfortable with himself to the point where he knows he is getting the millions of dollars and the hosting position of the show because of who he is.

[Bad Company]

Letterman is my favorite.

[Downunder]

Letterman sucks.

They all suck but Letterman sucks more.


Ok Conan and John Stewart are actually funny and are excluded from the suck list.

[jindrak]

Leno, hands down.

I like Conan, but I think he's a bit overrated.

Letterman just doesn't appeal to me.

[Gertner]

I'm a Letter-man......get it.....letter-man........!

[Gertner]

i noticed magic johnson was somehow omitted from the poll. must have been an oversight.

[Kris P Lettus]

Arsenio Hall

WOOF WOOF WOOF

[PapaGeorgio]

Forgot Chevy Chase too.

[Nervous Ferret]

'My Arnold always eats a sausage'

*bites air sausage*

[therocksays]

letterman is crazy so he gets my vote

[Reavant]

George Noory Coast to Coast

[Boondock Saint]

I guess this can go here instead of making a new thread:

Jimmy Fallon Cinches Conan's Job

The word is out among the NBC brass: As rumored and bounced around for some time, Jimmy Fallon is set to take Conan O’Brien’s job as host of "Late Night" in 2009. It’s a done deal.

Conan, of course, will be taking over for Jay Leno, who will leave the "Tonight" show in May 2009 as part of a forced retirement.

There’s much debate about letting Leno leave NBC etc., but right now let’s just concentrate on Jimmy. He’s the perfect successor to Conan and should have just as big an audience when he takes the reins. Fallon is one of those great underrated performers. This should be the right milieu for him.

I’m told NBC will make the formal announcement about Fallon around May 11 or 12, when the network presents the fall '08 schedule to advertisers here in New York.
Related

Fallon, who recently married producer Nancy Juvonen, is said to be thrilled and ready, if not a little scared, about taking Conan’s desk. He still has to pick a producer and a band, among other things.

As for Leno, he has plenty of options. One of them might be to replace "Nightline" on ABC, pushing Jimmy Kimmel back to 12:30 a.m. But a lot can happen between now and May 2009 in the chess game they call TV programming.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352397,00.html

[KingofOldSchool]

Oh god, I don't know who is worse...Fallon or Conan.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Oh god, I don't know who is worse...Fallon or Conan.

Don't be an idiot. Even if you don't like Conan, you have to admit it is no contest between him and Fallon.

I don't despise Fallon as much as others, but that's mainly because I have managed to avoid watching too much of him. They really should have gone with a someone who is more of a genius.

[PapaGeorgio]

WTF Really, Jimmy Fallon. Don't see that working that well. All I see is him coming out there and doing is stupid little chuckle/laugh the entire time cause he can't keep a straight face.

Rather see Magic or Chevy again then him.

[PapaGeorgio]

P.S. Fuck everyone who didn't vote for Johnny Carson.

[Avenger]

dude he's dead

[PapaGeorgio]

You are now dead to me.

[Savio]

Colbert

[Juan]

conebone69