Bill Carter: How Jimmy Fallon Crushed Stephen Colbert (and Everyone Else in Late Night)

This article goes to great pains attempting to explain why Stephen Colbert is failing in ratings.. One theory even says he is too smart for his audience. 

I disagree.

If you read back in the annals of this website, I predicted it would fail.. I thought this was a moment for CBS to name a female host for late night.. It was the moment. They blew it.

People don’t like politics at night. For that, they turn to the DAILY SHOW. For late night, they want silly lip synch battles, or as David Letterman once did, sidewalk races..

People want something to make their minds forget the day before bed.

Colbert reminds them of everything about the day they hated.
And that is why they turned to Fallon and will not turn away.

Bill Carter: How Jimmy Fallon Crushed Stephen Colbert (and Everyone Else in Late Night)

Letterman show announces final guests

The AP reports,

CBS announced Monday that his guests will include Bill Murray, George Clooney, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Robert Downey Jr., Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Don Rickles, Julia Roberts, Ray Romano, Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Short, John Travolta, Michael J. Fox and Alec Baldwin.
And there will be others who haven't been announced yet. Musical guests will include Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews Band, Mumford and Sons, Norah Jones, Amos Lee and Tracy Chapman.

Good set of people--all of those who made the show what it was over the past 30+ years..

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONgN2Hgz3XE?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]

Funny moment.. Good comedy

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnKEQtR30rM?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=374]

Let’s see you top THIS, Mr. Colbert..

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Blast from a comedic past.. I still fondly recall watching this segment the first time it appeared on David Letterman’s show in 1996..

Watching this skit again reminded me that I need to transfer all of my 50+ video tapes of old David Letterman shows to DVD before they dry rot..

How fast time goes.

I was 16 when I saw this for the first time.. So many years later, Letterman leaving CBS .. and I am feeling old.

But it’s still as funny to me as the first time..

Late Show with Stephen Colbert..

Not sure if I can get into that one..

What say you?

Jimmy Fallon’s high ratings pushed David Letterman to retire, source says

I don’t know if I really believe this.. Leno trounced Letterman for years.

The bottom line is that David Letterman is 67, has a young child, and in all honesty, stopped being cutting edge and funny years ago..

In a sense, Letterman should not have renewed his contract in 2013. It seemed like he gave up a few years back..

But I will still say in his time, and in my own youth, Letterman was the funniest person on TV and changed the entire game of late night post-Carson.

Jimmy Fallon’s high ratings pushed David Letterman to retire, source says

THAT’S ABOUT ALL FOLKS..

Seems like pretty big news here.. David Letterman is going to retire in 2015..

Letterman, CBS sign 'Late Show' deal through 2015

Got to say I’m a not surprised by this.. I think the show is stale now, I can’t even imagine what Letterman circa 2015 will be like..

But he really can’t go out on top. He hasn’t been on top since Hugh Grant was on top of a hooker and Leno got the first interview—and began his 23 years of high ratings..

But maybe CBS sees a chance with Dave up against Jimmy Fallon?

Letterman, CBS sign 'Late Show' deal through 2015

The late night host who leaves at the top of his game.. why?

They say it’s good to leave when you’re on top.. Jerry Seinfeld even did that when he stopped his program before the end of the 20th century.
The world of late night television will soon see an exit  of Jay Leno, who will leave the NBC’S TONIGHT SHOW. When he does leave, he will move on with some really high ratings..

As a matter of fact, one must ask why is leaving when he is so young, when he’s on top, and when he wins in the ratings every night (and has done so since the mid 1990s)..

I am a watcher of late night comedy..
Leno turned the tables on David Letterman in the 90s when he had Hugh Grant on his program after a sex scandal. After that, it seemed that all of the viewers who left the TONIGHT SHOW came back again.

For over a decade, Letterman was trailed. Jimmy Kimmel has been moving up in recent months, but still is behind the juggaruant of the TONIGHT SHOW.

As the DAILY BEAST points out in an extremely inter sting article today, Leno has been on top for 17 seasons..

17 seasons..
And this is the second time, even with high ratings, that NBC is tossing Leno aside in place of someone else they think can win the young demographic—even though Leno trounces competition in that age group!

I think Jimmy Fallon will start big and fail.. I predict that. While the TONIGHT SHOW will never perhaps be canceled for bad ratings, I do not think Fallon is ready for early late night. Beer pong and celebrity games will not work.. There may be a chance that Jimmy Fallon will end up being the best thing that could happen to David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel.

If you’re interested, read the DAILY BEAST article here.. And afterwards think to yourself, why in the world is NBC getting rid of the best thing they have..in place of someone who may not live up to the expectations placed on him..

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M65Dx0STe2M?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]

Never noticed until now, but apparently David Letterman likes drums. Like a lot..

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Is David Letterman's time coming to an end on CBS!?

The late night wars indeed.

And you thought Korea was getting tense..

Is David Letterman's time coming to an end on CBS!?

It feels like the early 90s all over again, except with a bigger chin

A late night talk show host from NBC bashing NBC as executives work behind the scenes to get rid of him and hire someone else… Leno did it to Letterman in ‘92-‘93.. Now he is being forced to take it on the chin himself as he’s being edged out in place of Fallon on the TONIGHT SHOW..

And with that, TONIGHT will be back in New York City…

It feels like the early 90s all over again, except with a bigger chin

I missed this from a week or so ago,  but watched it now. David Letterman got political again .. this time on the topic of fracking. He said we are screwed. Can you argue with that?

30 years on air for David Letterman. He is an institution of comedy..

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say how important he has been in my life. I remember vaguely watching him as a kid (age 3 and 4 and maybe 5) .. I remember vividly watching him as a grade school kid and high schooler.. I repeated his jokes the next day because I knew no other kids stayed up that late …

I don’t watch much now,  though. Can’t say the show is nearly as imaginative as it once was.. or cutting edge. Or new and fresh. But 30 years on air in some capacity is meaningful and amazing. He is a legend of our time just as Carson was for the previous…

But I leave you tonight with this question.. did David Letterman perfect late night sarcasm or, by being so good at it, destroy the ability for anyone else to be sarcastic?

This is not a bit

First the Ed Sullivan theater ransacked and now this

An extreme Jihadist online is calling for the killing of David Letterman ..

Barbara Walters’ special tonight on ABC is quite thought provoking.. David Letterman, years ago, had Regis Philbin on his show where they spoke about a typical check up.. The day after, the entertainment world was shocked to learn of Letterman’s dramatic and necessary open heart surgery.. When Letterman came back, Robin Williams appeared as a doctor making light of Letterman’s surgery. Regis had his own open heart surgery in 2007.. Robin Williams in 2009.

While of course I am not at all simplifying the issue of claiming there is anything ‘contagious’ about open heart surgery, but the reason I bring it up is that these three influential people—not to mention President Bill Clinton, reporter Charlie Rose, and reporter Barbara Walters—would have all been potentially taken away from earth and placed into the next realm..

Were they are to have succumbed to their ultimate fate, there would be plenty of lessons left untaught..

The biggest names of our generation all had the same disease.. And amazingly they are all alive to tell us why we need to stay on guard for the same thing.

Watching Jack Hanna on David Letterman while school delays and closings because of a snowstorm display on screen. It’s been years since high school but school closings and night storms still make me go to bed happy..