I actually don't watch any of those, I mostly tune into The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report....
No idea if he does it every night (I don't watch), but I'm pretty sure he took the bit from Top Gear. They do "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" every week, which Jay happened to be on for the season finale a few months ago. Jeremy Clarkson always does a good job of engaging with the guest and the running gag is that the car is simply terrible. I don't think Jay does that, lest he lose the sponsor (Ford?). If you haven't seen it, check out the show on BBC America sometime. It's one of the best programs I've ever seen.
Jay is a fan of Top Gear, so he didn't need to have been a guest to have "borrowed" the idea. His bastardized version sucks donkey balls.
As other pointed out, from an advertisers' standpoint Conan still rules. These days it's REALLY hard to grab the attention of young to middle aged adults. And advertisers will pay premium on shows that cater to them. Also, I find that one problem with Conan is that he can't compete with Dave in terms of guests. Hopefully that's something that will simply change time and experience. But it's definitely hurting his ratings for now. Unfortunately, I find that lesser known guests tend to give much better interviews than A-list celebs. But the latter gets the ratings.
Dave is actually beating Jay in prime time at the moment. Dave is averaging around 5mil viewers while Jay is a little less. People watch Jay/Conan/Fallon for the guests. Letterman and Ferguson's shows revolve around the host's personality... so people watch Dave and Ferguson for them, no matter who the guest is.
Nobody that watches Conan regularly is watching for the guests. Sometimes I'll even change the channel if it's a guest I have no interest in. I think most people have their favorite, and then will watch the others for the guests. But all of these shows revolve around the host's personality. I watch Conan all the time, will flip to Dave occasionally because I do find him entertaining at least...Jay's show bores me (unless he has a guest I like), Fallon is ok but I'm not usually up that late, and Ferguson is not my taste. I think Kimmel might be on his way out, though- I liked it ok at first but I have zero interest in it now.
So your evidence that Letterman is "stomping Conan into the ground" is that last week he topped the Tonight Show for the first time in four years?
I like Conan and Ferguson. The others suck. I actually think Craig Ferguson is an acquired taste, that ends up being quite funny. That said, I typically stop watching him when the guests come on. I actually like his rambling monologues that aren't the same old tired jokes. Conan I'll always find funny. I'll watch the Graham Norton Show every once in a while - don't actually know when it is regularly on, but I'll happen to find a repeat. I watched one where Joan Rivers was on recently...hilarious.
WRONG back in my conan watching days (IN COLLEGE), i never watched it b/c of the guests.... EVER. it was always about conan and the skits. c'mon son!
Ditto. I'll put Conan's sketches 5 times a week for ~15 minutes right up there w/ the best sitcoms or whatever.
Ferguson has some natural talent... but he's literally a one man show out there.. which can become kinda boring. I mean, there's no contests, no gags, no stuff with the audience.. is this due to a lack for writers?? You see all the other shows, and there's always a good mix of different things going on. But people who think Fallon > Ferguson.. what??? seriously?
