Late Night

The late-night innovator steps into the most innovation-resistant format in TV. Jaime Weinman on Stephen Colbert’s first Late Show

As Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah prepare for their spin on the late-night carousel, an ex-host discusses the tricks of the trade

David Letterman announces he will retire from Late Show in 2015

Jaime J. Weinman on what the programming changes mean for late night TV

In the latest round of late night talk show rumours, the New York Times claims that several NBC “senior executives involved in the deal”—to replace Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show—say the move will happen sometime before fall of 2014 and that the show will be based in New York.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeBVDDLzIZk

Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien have become a proxy for two different viewpoints in a divided country

Louis C.K., who may be the dean of American standup comedy (or perhaps a regent serving during the Madness of King Chappelle), offers a sage commentary on the Late Night Wars. His insight is unique and valuable because 1) it’s Louis C.K., for God’s sake; 2) it’s saturated with sincere respect for everybody involved; 3) he’s written for and with pretty much everybody, including Conan O’Brien and David Letterman; 4) it’s easy to forget because he’s bald and pudgy, but he’s got a generational perspective quite distinct, in important ways, from that of the principals. LCK is four years younger than the boyish Conan, and easily young enough to be Jay Leno’s kid. In some respects he is obviously speaking for all the major comic talents out there who haven’t yet had their own successful series.

The Conan-Leno fight is clearly a generational one. I have yet to hear anyone in my online social network declare for “Team Leno”; I’m not sure that there is any such thing, or who would be part of it if there were. Consider this: Jay Leno was at one time one of the most respected standup comedians on Earth, and continues to perform live all over the continent and refine his live act. Conan O’Brien, a Harvard man who spent no more than ten seconds paying comic dues of any kind, has no traceable experience of standup. And yet every single standup comic I’ve heard or seen weigh in on the feud has backed Conan—even though he appears to be walking away from the Tonight Show, which has been the dominant economic force in their industry for more than 50 years. There’s something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.

Jimmy Fallon’s aw-shucks, little-boy quality is an attempt to compensate for his many weaknesses