dolphinboy

http://www.usatoday.com/life/enter/t...04-30-leno.htm[URL=http://www.usatoday.com/life/enter/tv/2002/2002-04-30-leno.htm]

this is great! i can't stand leno.

Gdrlv

Wow...very negative towards Leno. I'm also not a big fan of Leno. However, Letterman isn't as good as he used to be either...

Snake Plissken

I never liked Leno and I never will.

JonTurner

Amen! to USA Today! I only wish they'd talked a little about how Letterman kicks his ass in every way, every night.

Snake Plissken

They would be lying if they did. Letterman sucks almost as much as Leno. Conan kicks everyones ass every night.

Jackskeleton

Conan does indeed kick both there arses.

But between leno and letterman.. I would rather watch letterman. leno is just unfunny

wildcatlh

Agreed. At least Leno has pretty much always sucked. Letterman has fallen way, way down over the years. I just wish Conan was on earlier.

kevin75

as a brief aside, the article talks about 'jaywalking'. is anybody else just absolutely embarrased to be an american everytime that comes on? those people are really depressing to think about.

Groucho

One thing to note about "Jaywalking": they only play the bits where somebody got questions wrong (for obvious reasons). So, if somebody wants to get on television and Jay is interviewing them, it's in their own best interest to "play dumb".

Geofferson

Agreed! Conan is the only late night talk show I watch (I just wish it was on earlier).

clemente

And to think Carson launched all those careers in his first ten years on The Tonight Show. Who knew Seinfeld was 60 years old?

Seems like a hatchet job, something I'd expect from an Internet news site, not a legitamite paper like USA Today.

JonTurner

Man, I've found that Conan's the one that's gone down hill the most in the last couple of years. I used to always switch to him after Dave, but I watched both for a while, and definitely prefer Kilbourn now.

drexel

Conan may be better then Leno and Letterman right now but Conan can't hold a candle to Jon Stewart on comedy Central. That is by far the best daily show on TV right now

Slumbering Fist

Wait a minute,.. USA Today is basically calling Leno trite and patronizing? Pot meet Kettle... I hate Leno as much as the next guy, but USA Today repeditively plays to the popular/dumber/easier side of getting readers just as much as Leno does to reel in viewers.

The Antipodean

My whole problem with Leno is that he's MEAN. Not "funny mean" like Letterman or Conan, which is great, but "MEAN with a smile as he says the most malicious things." Jay smiles a lot but sometimes I think he's secretly wishing he could be off serial killing or something. I don't trust him, he scares me.

jericho88

Except for one vital thing--ratings.

G. Noel Gross

Fellow members of the Jay Leno haters society should seek out the late great Bill Hicks' thoughts on the alleged comic. He's vicious and absolutely right. It's better to hear him but here's a sample in print courtesy of BillHicks.com

... "What a ****ing whore. And not even when he needed the money, either. The guy makes 3 million and he decides to hawk Doritos to make even more money. You not got enough money, you ****ing whore?! You gotta sell snacks to bovine America now?! 'Hi everyone, I'm Jay Leno, anyone remember when I was funny?'! Satan ****ing him the ass on national TV!" Hicks fantasised about Leno shooting himself on the show and his brains spewing out in the shape of the NBC peacock -- "'Cos he's a company man to the bitter ****ing end." ...

Hopefully, the censor-matic caught all that.

clemente

Yeah, someone ragging on Leno cause of the amount of money he makes.....cause poor Letterman gets paid in Chuck E. Cheese tokens.

Conan still rules all, with Stewart right up there with him.

I'd rather watch Letterman than Kilborn and I'd rather step on my own dick that watch Letterman.

G. Noel Gross

True, but you're reading it out of context. Hicks believed comedy is an avenue of social commentary and that when you do a commerical, you're forever beholding to the coporate machine and everything you say afterward is suspect. Same notion that USED to be held by rock bands. Obviously, no more. Was Jay Leno ever an comic agent of social change? Nah. But to Hicks, greed was greed and something he railed against.

pjflyer

CNN chimes in on Leno's 10th as well.


http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/0....ap/index.html

"There's just one problem. "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" is a wretched one-note nightly waste of time."

Groucho

I bet if Bill Hicks was offered a multi-million dollar contract with NBC to host the Tonight Show, he would have taken it in a New York minute. I guess we'll never know now.

dolphinboy

If you can step on your own dick, than you should be out making movies and not watching late night tv.

While I don't agree that Conan or John Stewart are better than Letterman, I think they are both great. But, for one, the Daily Show is not a traditional network late night talk show. It's mostly sketch comedy, it's on cable, it is written for mostly young watchers, and it is truly one of the funniest things on tv right now. But if Letterman had gone to ABC and CBS had brought in Jon Stewart (and there were those rumors), don't think for a minute he'd be able to have done the same thing at CBS (or any other network at 11:30). Stewart spends only a half hour, 4 days a week, and his guests are on for about 3 minutes. That leaves a lot more time for doing his headlines and 2-3 segments which are the best part of the show.

While I still love Letterman, I think he has grown tamer over the years. But that is what is classy about the guy. When he was on in Conan's spot he played to a younger audience and he reinvented the medium. He was also younger, himself. That he doesn't submerge himself in milk or use the monkey cam anymore has more to do with the fact he's now in his mid-50's than him cowtowing to the network to play more to the middle America audience that gives Leno his ratings and also loves the Dancing Itos.

If you love Conan the way he is and you love Stewart the way that he is, you should hope they stay on late and/or on cable. I'm sure Conan would be great if he got the Tonight Show, but like Letterman agreeing to stop wearing sneakers with his suits when he went to 11:30 at CBS, there would be a lot about Conan's show that would never be the same. Same thing with Stewart, although I think this guy is truly funny enough to get by without all the "racier" humor though.

Norm de Plume

All four of the major networks' late night hosts suck, especially Conin. I don't understand his ever-growing popularity. This guy is practically a walking billboard for "Unfunny Loser".
Letterman used to be amusing, but his schtick has gotten really old.
Leno is a weak-kneed celebrity ass-kisser, but I do tune in once a week for "Headlines".
Kilbourn is the most smarmy, sardonic, and self-satisfied of the bunch. Some of the humor on his show is refreshingly irreverent, but he is hard to take.
"The Daily Show" is pretty funny, sometimes caustically hilarious, but Stewart's constant mugging for the camera and audience is tiresome.


Bring back class acts like Carson (that'll never happen) or Tom Snyder.

dolphinboy

Or you could build a time machine and go back to the 70's!

Decker

Did anyone catch him on the Today Show this morning? Katie asked him about the criticism he always receives for playing it safe and not being edgy. He responded by saying that his favorite criticism was some one complaining about the shape of his head "I mean, how can I change my head?" Great Jay, too bad that wasn't the question asked. And of course, Katie just moved on.