Letterman vs Leno

• Foul Tip

  How much longer will this back biting go on between these two. Every night it's a verbal slugfest. Letterman is out of control spending way too much time whining about te past. Is he afraid that when Leno comes back against him at 11:30 he will again drop to second place?
• 2quik4u

  

  fuck them both
• ernest_t_bass

  

  I can't stand Leno.
• september63

  

  Letterman
• raiderbuck

  Leno did come out and try to put some blame on NBC a couple nights ago. I blame NBC honestly, and I think Jay should have just retired on top. I like Conan on the tonight show though.
• atomica600

  

  Conan is number one to me, but between the options, I used to watch Letterman more.
• Foul Tip

  ernest_t_bass wrote: I can't stand Leno.

  I'm not a big fan of Leno either. Letterman is better. Sure when this started it was funny. Now Dave gives the appearance of a bitter old guy. I thought he was better than that.
  
  Besides Festivus was a month ago.
• gut

  NBC deserves its share of blame. But I think what has upset many in the industry is that Jay went along with it. I have to agree, Jay accepting that deal was the epitome of selfish backstabbing. He should have just done the classy thing and said thanks but no thanks and moved on to other things. But Jay is a workaholic and obsessed with the spotlight.
• Speedofsand

  

  I can't stand Conan. Letterman is ok. I like Leno more. He is cool and his car collection is amazing.
  
  http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/
• derek bomar

  

  Speedofsand wrote: I can't stand Conan. Letterman is ok. I like Leno more. He is cool and his car collection is amazing.
  
  http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/

  gtfo
• BRF

  

  Here's one where we disagree, ernest_t.
  
  I like Leno better.
  
  Letterman, from day one, has always irritated me.
• Speedofsand

  

  derek bomar wrote:

  Speedofsand wrote: I can't stand Conan. Letterman is ok. I like Leno more. He is cool and his car collection is amazing.
  
  http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/

  gtfo

  still bitter :dodgy:
  
  Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience
• 2kool4skool

  

  If you're under 60 and find Jay Leno funny, you might need to reevaluate things.
• The Giss

  Two words. Craig Ferguson.
  
  Far and away the funniest of the lot and rivals Stewart and Colbert on cable.
• gut

  2kool4skool wrote: If you're under 60 and find Jay Leno funny, you might need to reevaluate things.

  That's crazy. His stand-up is good - I've always enjoyed his monologue. Some of his bits leave a lot to be desired, but some are very good (jaywalking, headlines).
  
  Conan's bits and interviews tend to be superior to Leno's (for the record, I never liked much of anything of Letterman's really). Conan's monologue is not good, and I bet that's been a key driver to his failure as many people probably quickly tune out when the monologue stinks.
• BigDog

  Leno won't retire or go away because NBC won't let him, he's still under a multi year contract that they won't let him out of.
  
  NBC is scrambling because Leno won't survive at 10, Conan is bombing at 11:30 & Jimmy Kimmel sucks.
  
  What NBC should've done was to keep Leno at 11:30 where he was #1, told Conan sorry your time is 12:30 like it or not. As far as Jimmy Kimmel - how in the hell did he ever get a "talk show"?????
  
  If someone thinks Conan would've jumped to ABC or Fox, maybe but he couldn't compete against Letterman head to head he would've completely bombed (worse than he's doing now) going against Leno & Letterman.
• gut

  BigDog wrote: Leno won't retire or go away because NBC won't let him, he's still under a multi year contract that they won't let him out of.

  Sure he could. Even if there were some penalty for simply retiring (which is hard to imagine), he has more than enough money to take the hit.
  
  The simple explanation is that Leno won't retire because he doesn't want to. This is a guy who goes and does live stand-up on his vacation. He will, in fact, probably end-up being carried off the stage at some point.
• BRF

  

  gut wrote: The simple explanation is that Leno won't retire because he doesn't want to. This is a guy who goes and does live stand-up on his vacation. He will, in fact, probably end-up being carried off the stage at some point.

  Upon reflection.................I agree with that.
• 2kool4skool

  

  gut wrote:This is a guy who goes and does live stand-up on his vacation. He will, in fact, probably end-up being carried off the stage at some point.

  ding ding
  
  Think about how much adulation a person needs that they needs to fly to Vegas once a month to do stand up because hosting the Tonight Show isn't enough. The guy has never been respected by his fellow comics, so he seeks out validation from as many "meaningless" people as possible. Quantity over quality basically.
• BigDog

  gut wrote:

  BigDog wrote: Leno won't retire or go away because NBC won't let him, he's still under a multi year contract that they won't let him out of.

  Sure he could. Even if there were some penalty for simply retiring (which is hard to imagine), he has more than enough money to take the hit.
  
  The simple explanation is that Leno won't retire because he doesn't want to. This is a guy who goes and does live stand-up on his vacation. He will, in fact, probably end-up being carried off the stage at some point.

  I agree, he doesn't want to, I don't blame him, he's doing something he loves and makes damn good money doing it. And since NBC won't let him out of his contract he's got the "fine give me a show somewhere" and let's face it he's earned the right to not be put in some crappy time slot.
• BRF

  

  BigDog wrote:
  
  ...and let's face it he's earned the right to not be put in some crappy time slot.

  Ya know, I'm one of the very few, I guess, that actually like his show at 10:00. I guess I am just old, but with all the crap that is on TV and me wanting to get to bed early...............I kinda like it. But I guess it didn't go over well with the overall ratings.
• BigDog

  2kool4skool wrote:
  Think about how much adulation a person needs that they needs to fly to Vegas once a month to do stand up because hosting the Tonight Show isn't enough. The guy has never been respected by his fellow comics, so he seeks out validation from as many "meaningless" people as possible. Quantity over quality basically.

  The guy flies to Vegas to do stand up because he loves what he does. We should be so lucky to have a job like that.
  
  And if you really don't think he's respected by fellow comics you're listening to your own press too much. No one is loved by everyone, Leno is no different. Just because he's pissed off a few people over the years, the sky is not falling and everyone doesn't hate him.
• gut

  BigDog wrote: The guy flies to Vegas to do stand up because he loves what he does. We should be so lucky to have a job like that.

  I'm sure that is part of it. I have also heard some psychologists and comedians talk about how that spotlight is like a drug addiction. One comedian described it as "incredibly depressing lows alone and on the road, living for that "high" again when you go on stage". I think the psychologist went on to say that many stand-ups she interviewed could be classified as manic depressives.
• 2kool4skool

  

  BigDog wrote: And if you really don't think he's respected by fellow comics you're listening to your own press too much. No one is loved by everyone, Leno is no different. Just because he's pissed off a few people over the years, the sky is not falling and everyone doesn't hate him.

  Yeah, he's pretty much universally hated in the comedy world. The guy turned rat during the comedians strike of the late 70's, there really isn't much recovering from that. And even if there was, his slimy actions since then(hiding in closets during executive meetings) haven't won any insiders over.
• BigDog

  BRF wrote:

  BigDog wrote:
  
  ...and let's face it he's earned the right to not be put in some crappy time slot.

  Ya know, I'm one of the very few, I guess, that actually like his show at 10:00. I guess I am just old, but with all the crap that is on TV and me wanting to get to bed early...............I kinda like it. But I guess it didn't go over well with the overall ratings.

  I don't mind the 10:00 spot but I could very easily see NBC putting him in a 1:30 am slot or some stupid thing like that.