There are many evenings that I’m willing to forego all prime-time programming and just stick with late night TV - and I’m not talking about just the usual suspects. It seems like the last home for serious talk (”Charlie Rose,” “Tavis Smiley”), spontaneous humor (Jimmy Kimmel has slipped ahead of Conan O’Brien in this department) and genuine movie stars (When he really, really admires someone, nobody fawns better than David Letterman).

So if I could only watch two late-night shows, which would they be? A year ago, I would have stuck with my old-standbys, “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” and “The Late Show With David Letterman”) but I’m ready to make an adjustment, at least until the political season is over.

“The Daily Show” is required viewing for the next three months. No other program, and that includes the Sunday-morning yakkers and “Nightline,” does a better job of gauging the temperature of the country - and if a bunch of professional comics jump on someone’s shortcomings, you can bet politicos will be soon behind.

If that’s the entree of the night, then Kimmel makes the ideas dessert. Politics rarely enters the discussion. Instead the focus is on pure goofiness, and not in a women-bouncing-on-trampoline kind of way. It’s the kind of spontaneous, let’s-throw-it-up-against-the-rubber-wall schtick that Steve Allen invented and David Letterman perfected that’s all too often missing in corporate entertainment. On some nights, O’Brien still has it. But more and more, I feel like he’s rehearsing for the more traditional “Tonight” format and giving The Masturbating Bear too many nights off.

Who’s with me?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.