Late Night Wars

My late father was a big fan of vaudeville.  Although we were almost the last people on earth to get a television because dad thought it was a fad, once we had it, we were unable to pry him away from it.  Why?  Because the early days of television were run by people from vaudeville.  Where else were the networks going to find people with the abilities to stage entertainment programming?  That's why the early TV shows looked like stage shows.  Uncle Miltie and Your Show of Shows, Ed Sullivan and the rest all looked like vaudeville.  My father was overjoyed and he and I watched a lot of television together.  Because of this, I was and am a witness to a bit of television history.  I was in front of the set when Steve Allen hosted the first Tonite Show on NBC.  I saw his first show and his last.  I saw Jack Paar's first shot at the late night show and his last.  I was there for Johnny Carson's debut and his finale, which, by the way, was the most emotional.  Therefore, I couldn't miss Leno's debut or Dave Leterman's either.  At the time I wrote a long memo to the broadcast company I worked for telling them what a mistake NBC made in letting Dave get away from them and how they would regret giving Leno the job.  Obviously, I was wrong.  Leno beat Dave handily most of the 17 years they competed.

I'm not sure why that happened, but I suspect that Dave's irreverence infected the way he delivered his own writers' material leaving the audience to wonder, if Dave thinks this stuff is so bad, why should I watch it?  Dave just might be too hip for the room as they used to say.

Now, the torch has passed again with Conan O'Brien taking over the Tonite Show and going head to head with Letterman.  Despite what you read, this is not a level playing field.  Dave is a good 20 years older than Conan and so is his material.  One pundit I read said "Dave has to "up his game" if he ever hopes to be on top in the late night ratings.

I think Dave is faced with the impossible task of changing his game to compete with a younger more likable Conan who is essentially doing a form of Letterman's shtick in a nicer way.  He could grab a great number of Letterman's younger viewers and essentially decimate the CBS late show.  Conan is certainly likable enough to keep Leno's older viewers which leaves Dave with not much.  To level the field again, CBS,  ABC or Fox might find some likable character who appeals to the average aged late night viewer who could drive a wedge between Conan and Dave and take 75% of the combined audience and put Dave AND Conan out of business.  Will that happen?  I don't think so.  I just think Dave will fade away and NBC will outright own late night.

Now, why should we care?  Personally, I don't care because I can't stay up that late anymore and the humor on both shows is somewhat lackluster to me.  However, the former broadcast business guy in me knows that these shows are vastly profitable because they are very inexpensive to produce compared to anything else on network television.  The profits gleaned from these late night modern vaudeville shows can pay for some  better prime time programming which I think needs to be drastically improved.   

What do you think?  Do you care?  Or do you want to be the biggest loser dancing with the American idol nanny while she has her home improved by the vast cast from the huge number of Law and Order cast members?