It’s finally here. The four horsemen of late night TV may finally get to go head to head to head to chin against each other. With Leno heading back to the “Tonight Show” and Conan maybe (probably) going to Fox, viewers haven’t seen a feud like this since Letterman and Leno fought for the “Tonight Show.”
Although it helped with Team Coco putting out a statement blasting NBC and all of the hosts jabbing the late night debacle on their own shows, what NBC is setting up for the near future could be classic.
There is no dispute that Johnny Carson is the true king of late night, but who did he really have to go up against? There wasn’t a pool of candidates like Leno, Letterman, Conan and Kimmel since the first season of “Survivor.” Well, not really but at the time of this writing, a story about “Survivor” came onto the web.
All four hosts have seen great success on late night. And that’s hard to do. The fifth person to achieve late night prince status was Arsenio Hall. I mean look at the line-up: Chevy Chase, Magic Johnson, Pat Sajak, Mo’Nique, Wanda Sykes, and Craig Kilborn. All of these people have talent, save for Kilborn who is nothing more than a pretentious jackass, and none of them could make a dent in market share.
I used to believe that late night TV had a formula for success, almost like Carlton Sheets and buying houses with no money down (again, not really but there was an infomercial). Add a funny monologue, some comedy skits, and mediocre guests with movies and animals, throw in a comedian or band to close the show, and you had ratings. But that’s not true at all.
Leno, Conan, Letterman and Kimmel have all shown that it takes a little bit more to be a hit. So, whatever people think about NBC and how it handled the situation, you can not deny that the network has set up late night TV to be the best time slot in history.
BYLINE:
Jason Tanamor is the Editor of Zoiks! Online. He is also the author of the novels, "Hello Lesbian!" and "Anonymous." Email Jason at jason@zoiksonline.com.
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