Risk of Deadly Transmissions
I’m decidedly uncommited about who should be hosting which late-night time slot. Perhaps I just miss Johnny, perhaps I like to do other things once my wife’s in bed and I’ve gotten half of the house to myself, or perhaps I just don’t find anything appealing about any of these jokers (term used for insult and not praise of their professional skills).
I like Jimmy Kimmel. I laugh out loud at some of Craig Ferguson’s stuff from time to time. But the big names mentioned mostly in the press are seldom funny and always horrible in interviewing styles.
All of them had their day of course. Letterman had his morning show, and the first year on late night NBC. Leno had solid stand-up routines that he’d polished over a number of years playing the casinos. Conan had the year 2000. But now they’re all as relevant as SNL.
The strangest part is that this reveals just how clueless big bosses are. Someone high up at NBC actually decided, “What the heck, let’s experiment with moving things around—see what happens.” I mean, someone who is paid a ridiculously large amount of money didn’t have a hint on how to test whether or not putting Jay Leno and Conan O’Brian back to back doing the same thing they’ve been doing for over fifteen years would be interesting to an audience. Nothing new—just the same show, only earlier and with a new set.
Hmm. Weakens the impact of banker bonuses doesn’t it?