Here's my brief and succinct history of late night television
Johnny Carson - the godfather of all late night
Jay Leno - very successful in his early run, but the situation between him and Conan scarred his legacy as a host of the Tonight Show
Conan O'Brien - he deserved the Tonight Show and NBC did not give him a chance to succeed. At TBS, he is doing his show on his own terms.
David Letterman - the heir to Johnny Carson, was funny back in the day, now seems to be a bitter old comedian who is too liberal to be critical of certain politicians
Jimmy Kimmel - better on the Man Show than on late night
Jimmy Fallon - I tried to watch him a couple times, not funny
Seth Myers - SNL, too new to late night
Jon Stewart - funny but too liberal
Stephen Colbert - his act as a fake conservative is really stupid. Replacing Letterman with all his flaws for Colbert is a downgrade for CBS
Craig Ferguson - the man is a genius. Ferguson is more of a storyteller in his opening monologue. He entertains his audience with his gay robot skeleton sidekick and his horse Secretariat. He is not like any other late night show because his deconstruction of the genre and spontaneity make it's a lot more entertaining to watch than most current late night shows. It's sad to see him leave at the end of 2014.
Leave comments below if I forgot anybody or agree/disagree with my assessment of any or all of these late night comedians
