The Late Night Wars Miss the Real Point: They’re Soon to Become a Thing of the Past

The networks used to pad their wallets with a reliable ritual: Americans' reliance on the shared experience of sitting down at 11:30 P.M. and watching a talented comic like Leno, Letterman, or O'Brien filter the news of the day through his wry lens, a forum crier in the town square, come to assure you that the world was an insane, absurd, sometimes unfathomable place that could be made palatable and less threatening by putting it in its place through irony and satire.

But then came niche programming, DVR machines,  the Internet and newer, hipper forum criers: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose mockeries and diatribes could be immediately streamed in 5-minute YouTube bits. 

 The late-night ritual become usurped by a new generation who prefer their news in short clips gathered through whatever niche Internet sites. As the old generation passes on, we can say goodbye forever to the Late Night Wars and see the ego clashes of its principals partly as a refusal to accept their inevitable demise.

 

Comments

[Angelo]

This late night format like old luggage: It's kept forever because it still works as it was designed, even though better options might now be available. Jeff: I couldn't agree with you more. Letterman and Leno have outlived their usefullness and are still being handsomely rewarded because network programmers don't have the guts to pull the plug on this stale format. The last time anything "fresh" debuted, it was "Nightline" and that was an accident of sorts---emerged as a nightly update on the U.S. hostages in Iran and evolved. Where is it written that following the local news, we need to sit through a comic monologue, 2-3 celebrity guests who really have nothing new to say---just there to plug something---and music from a live "house band" that would be lucky to play weddings or Bar Mitzvahs? It's over already. Carson took it as far as it could go.

[Angelo]

By the way, Letterman used to be the best of them and now he's the worst. Why? Well, he's become exactly the object that he used to expose as passe'. Letterman is now old and corporate. He's stale. Paul Shaffer and "Top Ten" lists are stale. This has become "Stupid Talk Show Tricks" and will never improve---it will only get worse. Hilarious sarcasm has become bitter old man. It was sad to watch Letterman decline.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Angelo, I couldn't have said it better. Now I've got to keep this blog from becoming old luggage. We'll see.

[Angelo]

By design, your blog won't become old luggage. We talk about everything from tube radios to vegans. If it's ever in danger of becoming stale, some current event will rescue it.

[Angelo]

By the way, Mark Cuban's blog has a very interesting new entry about the late night wars---he actually defends Zucker of NBC because he perceived this as Zucker "taking a risk." Mark's readers (including me) took him to task. I usually agree with him...but not this time.

[Mike W]

Very well-written post there, Jeff.

I was a big Letterman fan from the start of his first season, when a dorm buddy & I started watching in college. Now I'm in bed too early for those shows, but a few times a year I watch and am kind of surprised Dave has stayed at it.

Supposedly he's waiting to match Carson's tenure in 2012. I doubt that means much to anyone but himself. Perhaps it would have been more graceful to bow out a few years back. The sex scandal might never have emerged.

[jeffrey McMahon]

As a college student in the 1980s, I loved Letterman and even affected some of his ironic poses. I haven't seen his show in over a decade. I wish him the best but all good things must pass.

[Tom Welch]

Late night format is still here for one single reason, network TV executives don't have the guts to try something new.

Late night format is history, this dog won't hunt.

[Angelo]

Tom: You should go to Mark Cuban's blog and check out his latest entry, about this. I normally agree with him----but this time, he actually defends Jeff Zucker of NBC as having "Taken a risk" with the shake-up, giving Jay a prime time show, etc. No, taking a real risk would have been blowing up this dinosaur that is late night talk shows. I'd rather watch MASH reruns for crying out loud.

[Tom Welch]

I'd rather watch those pretty Russian women tennis players at the Australian Open on ESPN.

[Angelo]

Well...aren't they sort of like thinner versions of Loretta Swit?