Am I the only one bored with late night talk shows?

They're too slick HD-looking and bright and phoney energied now. I actually found the format stale by the mid-1990s. Watch some of the last Carsons that they've uploaded to Youtube. Many are snoozefests

 

I'll give you Maher, who I think argues his points well even when I think he's full of it - and I did find it particularly interesting when he took our current Minister of Foreign Affairs to school in a debate about terrorism a year and change back - but Oliver? Nah, like his fellow Daily Show refugees he just comes off like a smug twit reciting standardized bits and talking points. And he has the most punchable face this side of Martin Shkreli.

 

Yeah, same here! Ferguson was the only late-night guy I found consistently entertaining. Was sorry to see him go. I don't watch any of the current guys; they bore me!

 

I'm one who who is able to look past political statements, etc since they do not take over the whole show (Maher's forum is a bit different than the traditional late nigh talk show).

Heck, as a kid, Jimmy Carter (and Billy) -along with every president -were the butt of jokes on pretty much any comedy-variety show week after week back in the day.

I'm not really finding anything original these days. Plus, many of the younger celebrities I'm not familiar with.

I know this is dorky, Fallon's "head swap" bit from his late night show was classic. It's so stupid it's funny.

 

Most of them are just celebrity **** kissing contests.

 

Did he quit or got cancelled?

 

I think they're cool, I enjoy the humour.
Kimmel, Corden, Fallon and Corbet I enjoy heaps.

 

That's the real problem with modern talk shows. The stars once needed the talk shows for promotion back in the day for their latest project. Now the talk shows basically have to beg stars to be guests, which has changed the whole dynamic of the appearances.

I think the talk show format as we know it will be dead within a decade.

 

Is it just me, or is Conan getting shorter these days...

 

Quit.

 

I am a Leno fan. I haven't watched much of the new shows since he went off the air. I watch Golden Girls and Frazier instead.

 

And sadly, CBS have been thanking their lucky stars ever since, especially since James Corden has taken late night TV by storm. Ferguson can still be seen on TV daily, on that silly game show "Celebrity Name Game" that he hosts, which is produced by Courteney Cox and her ex-husband David Arquette.

For me personally, I have no use for "Car Karaoke" (Corden), hosts who yell (Fallon), are not really funny (Conan), used to be funny (Colbert), on too late for me (Seth Meyers) and that basically leaves Kimmel. I truly welcome Kimmel's recent "commentaries", over the usual comical monologue, as I find it refreshing to know that someone can take a minute to be "serious", in a "serious" time, rather than going for a cute quick joke like all the others seem to do. Watching late night hosts and Saturday Night Live trying to make fun of "you know who", is just not funny anymore, because there is nothing funny about that guy, in my book, just pure sadness.

 

I only watch British TV and I miss Michael Parkinson's no nonsense style of chat show. Johnathan Ross was very good when he was with the beeb, doing one-on-on interviews with a good dosage of seriousness and laughs (mostly laughs). Graham Norton's show is just too giggle orientated and superficial for my taste but it depends on the guests of course (it can be hilarious sometimes). Unfortunatley Ross (now on ITV) felt obliged to follow suit and went with multiple guest couches, poor guests (Norton gets them all) and more superficiality.
One I do like is BBC's Hard Talk, though it's more of a direct interview than a chat show.

 

I used to enjoy watching Graham Norton back in the day when my wife and I were big on BBC AMERICA and always watching the original cast of "Top Gear". Graham had some really interesting guests on his show and while he is a bit "over the top", he sold his style quite well and we enjoyed how he would have an almost "panel" couch of guests. The chair that "throws" an audience member for telling a bad joke got old pretty quick, especially since he was always determined to pull that lever, good joke or not!

 

You know more about the late night hosts than I do. I don't watch any of them.

 

That is on here in two episodes bursts 5 days a week. I only watch it if I see a contestant that is easy on the eyes. "Silly" is a good encapsulation.
I can't watch it if Cox is on, her twisted deformed plastic surgery face is eerie, almost as bad a Dr. Phil's wife.

 

Uh, dude. They *all* had serious monologues about Las Vegas. Takes mere seconds to find it on YouTube which is less time than it takes to write utterly false statements.

 

No, they all said a few words of what they are expected to say when a national tragedy strikes, some (I recall Mr O'Brien) even saying this is not what they signed up for when they took the job. I recall no monologues. Just a few words so everyone knows the show is about jokes and doesn't get upset. And that is fine. But Kimmel went so much further. Kimmel's on-screen personality grates on me terribly, but he has integrity I admire.

 

I don't know what you expect. They are comedians and not expected to change the world. It's a late-night show. People don't tune in to be depressed for 1h but rather to forget about the tragedies we're told about every day and have a laugh or two.

The point was the previous member essentially said other hosts just made jokes and didn't even acknowledge and address the events which is utterly untrue. All hosts did so and did so in a professional manner while interjecting their thoughts on the matter. Nothing wrong with what any of them said.

And yes, they were monologues. Not comedic monologues but monologues all the same. A monologue, FYI, is a speech. Look it up.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. My point is, monologue is a prolonged speech, not a (shorter) statement that is followed by a (longer, comedic) monologue.

 

You're backpedaling and splitting hairs.

Moreover, there were no comedic monologues. They all went to commercial. It's OK to admit you were wrong. I don't understand doubling down needlessly. Otherwise, it's 50 more posts about how you'll try to find a way to be correct, somehow. You're not. Point over. Move on. Not interested in doing this dance.

 

It's because they all think politics are funny.

 

I saw Kimmel's show the other night. It was a cryin' shame...

 

I used to record Letterman and would catch up as time permitted. It got tedious but I discovered Craig Ferguson and started doing the same. That got tedious and I switchover to Conan, which I enjoyed a lot for a while. Once his show started to feel the same every night, I moved over to Jimmy Fallon, liking his little games and musical bits. I gave up on that last fall and went cold turkey. Have not missed it.

 

I'd say that honour should go to Corden.