I feel like I ought to watch Letterman, but I always go with Leno. By that time of night, I don’t really need something challenging. I just want to press “Play” on the Leno Automatic Joke Dispenser and let it run for a few minutes.
He used to be much funnier but he seems to have some new writers who don’t have much funny to write about anymore. When he does his newspaper thing on monday nights, that’s funny, but that’s cause he doesn’t write those.
right now its preempted by the tennis thing & he seems to be showing reruns on top of that.
YES, thank you for saying it!
To me he comes across as a mysogonistic, smirking hypocrite.
As merely one example, the morning he “traded places” with Katie Couric, they presented the story about the winning jockey who was under suspicion (and subsiquently cleared) of concealing a cattle-prod type device during the Kentucky Derby. After Matt Lauer presented the story, Leno gets on this soapbox about how unfair it is of the media to pillory someone accused of misdeeds before all the facts are presented.
JEEEZ! I wish someone would strap him down and have him watch his lame and mean-spirited Richard Jewel jokes after the Olympic park bombing. I don’t know if Jewel sued Leno for defamation of character, but IMHO he had one hell of a case. And the truly sorry part of it is, I suspect, judging from the high profile politicians willing to whore themselves on the talk show circuit, that a LOT of people form their lasting opinions of someone based on the two dimentional characterizations presented by Jay and Co.
He may be a bipartisan basher, but I’m sure he knows and revels in the clout he carries.
For an interviewer who has fun with his guests and still seems to respect them, I’ll take Conan any day.
Talk about creepy! Aaarrgghhh!
The best thing about Leno is that is does a real monologue every night, not a fake mock “Oh, I must do a monologue but I’m so ironic I won’t make it funny” one like Letterman or Conan.
It’s absolutely true that he cannot interview to save his life. But Headlines is absolutely the only true guaranteed laugh-out-loud bit on late night.
I’ll take Jon Stewart. 
What I particularly hate about Leno is the way he repeats every punchline and the fact that he’s the smarmiest monologist in TV history. I also keep expecting Kevin to finally wear a kerchief on his head and say “Yassuh boss…”- does the man have absolutely no sense of self-worth? His laughing at the least funny jokes since TBS stopped making sitcoms is enough reason to not watch the show.
I don’t like him cause I’m a jealous bastard and want all his cars and motorcycles! 
I like Leno.
No, he is not a great interviewer, but neither are any of the other late night talk show hosts. IMHO Letterman is even worse.
I think the problem with interviews is that most of the guests are simply there to hype a project and tell a cute/funny story and the late night host’s job is to guide them into a reason to tell their one cute/funny story.
Besides, at that time of night, do you really want a late night host to delve into the geopolitical reasons for the current economic slump in Bolivia?
BTW, a lot of people compare all these shows to Johnny Carson…but if you ever look at a tape of the old Carson Tonight show, you will find he had the same two facial expressions, the same boring interview technique and a far shorter opening monologue that was filled with “how cold was it?” from the audience. I think it is only in the passing of time that Carson has suddenly become the all wonderful. If he had stayed on the air one more year, the ratings would have plunged and he knew it. One thing Carson did have was a good sense of timing - especially when it came time to quit. But if I had to look at Johnny one more time mugging at the camera when a monkey peed on his shoulder, I would have thrown my remote through the screen.
Let’s go a little easy on Carson folks. No need for this to get out of hand.
As for Mr. Leno, while I understand that “drive” is required to succeed in show business, and he is by many accounts charitable, I have formed the impression that he would someone’s liver if he thought it would advance his career.
I don’t know how far off that HBO movie about the drama surrounding the replacement of Carson was, and that’s probably skewing my opinion. But there is a difference between “driven” and “freakishly obsessed with career advancement”.
Repeat tonight, 7/3.
Uh, why go easy on Carson? DMark had it right. The last ten years at least of Carson were such a snoozefest that I stopped watching. He was phoning it in, at least on the three nights a week, 40 weeks a week he bothered to show up.