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COLUMN TALK WARS David Letterman and Jay Leno have dominated the late-night TV schedules for a generation. So why the animosity? And will they ever retire? Words by Michael Hogan It’s hard to imagine now, as they slug it out in the ratings and gossip columns, but Jay Leno and David Letterman were once best friends. In 1975, they met on the Los Angeles stand-up circuit, hit it off and became firm friends. Letterman admired the confident style with which smooth, lantern-jawed Leno controlled the stage. Leno thought gangly, sarcastic Letterman’s material was stronger and more original. Together they got hired to write 15 64 Open skies / march 2013 jokes per week for comic Jimmie Walker, who starred in the long-forgotten sitcom Good Times. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that both men started to carve out parallel careers as talk show hosts, both filling in for their idol Johnny Carson on NBC’s The Tonight Show as he started to wind down towards retirement. In 1982, Letterman landed his own vehicle, Late Night With David Letterman. Despite Carson anointing protégé Letterman as his preferred successor, Leno eventually got the big gig. He was seen as more mainstream, a corporate player, a safer pair of hands. Letterman
promptly defected to rival network CBS, changed one word of his show’s title (‘Late Night’ became ‘Late Show’) and scheduled it against Leno’s. The pair have been locking horns ever since. They’ve both had a hiatus – Leno handed over to Conan O’Brien for a year and Letterman took time off for heart surgery – but pick up a copy of TV Guide today and the schedules look the same as they did a generation ago, dominated by the same two icons, behind the same desks, with backdrops of the same cities. Over the same period, other TV genres have been turned on their head. The influence of HBO and high-concept series like Lost have made drama more ambitious and cinematic. The comedy landscape has been transformed by The Simpsons and deadpan mockumentaries. Sports coverage is now HD and 3D, with countless camera angles and high-tech analysis. News now rolls 24/7, served by the internet and ‘citizen journalism.’ So why not talk shows? How have they remained virtually unchanged? There’s a large element of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” at play here. Leno and Letterman dominate the late-night market, drawing around four million viewers apiece. Younger, edgier rivals like O’Brien, the two Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel) and Scottish expat Craig Ferguson have devoted cult followings but don’t punch nearly as hard. The big two mean big business. Despite the economic downturn, both earn their networks close to $200m in advertising revenue per year. Leno and Letterman are two of the best-paid stars on TV, earning an annual by now, both are half man, half desk and as addicted to the buzz of a late-night show as much as the money salary around $30m apiece, but they’re worth it. This is partly because their programmes make for habitual viewing. Talk shows remain a nightly ritual for millions across the States – watched before bed with a nightcap and a newspaper, or in bed with cocoa and a book. Most Americans are fundamentally conservative and resistant to change. Breakfast news and bedtime chat bookend their working day and woe betide anyone who tries to tinker. Indeed, talk shows play a much more important role in the US than they do anywhere else. They’re not just about big-name celebrity interviews, but also take in topical satire, sketches, stunts and spoofs – material that’s spread over multiple formats in most other countries. Feeding off the daily news cycle, they’re cultural arbiters that help set the tone of political debate. During presidential campaigns, both big parties monitor the late-night shows to gauge how certain issues and personalities are playing with the electorate. “The monologues are evidence of when a certain story really breaks through,” said Chris Lehane, Al Gore’s former campaign press secretary during the 2000 election. “If it makes it onto Leno or Letterman, it means something.” Surveys show that more than a quarter of all adults gain their information about election campaigns from late-night comedy. It’s here, though, that the big two are being challenged and regularly beaten by satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert – hosts of The Daily Show and its spin-off The Colbert Report respectively. With an issue-driven agenda and ironic 65 Open skies / march 2013 standpoint in the same ballpark as spoof newspaper The Onion, these Comedy Central upstarts are shorter – just 22 minutes plus commercial breaks – and tend to book more worthy, newsy guests. Their adoring audience is young, well educated and politically engaged – but around half the size of the big two’s. Entertainment will always trump ‘infotainment.’ Never underestimate the sheer star power brought by Hollywood A-listers that are the province of Leno and Letterman. Of course, their longevity brings with it accusations of complacency and staleness. Their heyday, arguably, was during the mid-1990s, when Madonna’s potty-mouthed appearance on Letterman became the most censored in history, while Hugh Grant tried to rehabilitate himself after the Divine Brown scandal, only to be met with what’s now one of Leno’s most famous lines: “What the hell were you thinking?” Certainly it was the 1990s when UK chat shows became obsessed with replicating the US model – notably Jonathan Ross, who’s made several stabs at ‘a British Letterman,’ but also Chris Evans, Danny Baker, Frank Skinner and the underrated but influential The Jack Doherty show on Channel 5. However, most UK chat shows these days follow a Parkinson/Wogan template. Graham Norton and Alan Carr perch on chairs next to their guests, with lots of knee-touching – more naughty tea party than late-night lock-in. Back in the US, the big two have signed contracts until the end of 2014, by which time Leno will be 64 and Letterman 67. An hour of live TV five nights per week is a tough gig but don’t bet against either of them extending those deals. By now, they’re half man, half desk and addicted to the buzz as much as the big bucks. They’re still equipped with a team of top writers and a steady stream of starry guests and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
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