Leno, Letterman Still Polar Opposites All These Years Later

Johnny Carson never got his hands dirty in the late-night TV wars.

He didn’t have to.

Carson reigned supreme for 30 years. His competitors could only scramble for second-place status. Some, like Chevy Chase, lasted just six weeks.

The Leno-Letterman wars, though, were another matter. The talk show titans’ duel proved so dramatic that they made a book and a TV film about it.

Leno emerged victorious in the ratings wars, but both hosts commanded large, loyal audiences. Their styles also clashed sharply over the years.

Leno took a Heartland-friendly approach, while Letterman embraced a hipster sentiment that earned him raves from the critical community.

Two talk show giants. Two very different comedy styles. Now, a decade after each called it quits, they remain polar opposites.

And Leno may still have the upper hand.

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The “Tonight Show” veteran just shared some fascinating news about his current comedy tour. Leno, who embraced Carson’s fair and balanced approach to political jabs on “The Tonight Show,” erased politics entirely from his current set.

Guess what happened next? Ticket sales jumped, Leno reports.

“I’m on the road a lot. I just took politics out of it, completely. I know ticket sales are up 20, 30 percent, just because nobody wants to be lectured,” he told “Today” anchor Hoda Kotb.

Leno’s headline humor was never cruel or cutting. He targeted world leaders when they deserved it, swatting both parties without taking sides.

Letterman, in comparison, leaned into his liberal views in his later years at CBS. He still kept the focus on comedy, at least more than most of today’s late-night hosts.

Yet Letterman’s progressive views aren’t hard to suss out now. He recently went to bat for far-Left talker Seth Meyers after President Donald Trump blasted the NBC star’s “Late Night” series.

President Trump says Seth Meyers is suffering from an incurable case of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) pic.twitter.com/0zkMZLsiAR

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 16, 2025

And, in doing so, Letterman proved he can pit his Trump Derangement Syndrome against anyone not named Rosie O’Donnell.

“The president of the United States now wants to fire Seth Meyers. Yeah. And I thought, ‘This is just delightful. How do you think that’s going to go?’ So, anyway, I’ve never been more proud of Seth Meyers,” the late-night icon said.

Had Letterman stopped there, he’d have a good point. President Trump’s social media rants, especially those that seemingly target speech, deserve to be mocked.

What we’ve learned over the past decade, though, is that Trump doesn’t follow up on his Truth social broadsides. He’s just blowing off steam.

And, of course, it’s unpresidential for him to do so. Let’s not forget that. It still demands context, especially on the heels of an administration that didn’t threaten to crush free speech.

It just did it.

Letterman kept up his attack on Trump.

“He’s our dictator,” Letterman added. “He’s not going anywhere.”

Yawn. Cue the tinfoil hat conspiracies. But Letterman couldn’t stop there.

“Think of the worst thing that you’ve ever seen humans accomplish. [Trump’s presidency] is so much worse.”

Yes, it’s far worse than the Holocaust, or 9/11, or Pearl Harbor, or the Holodomor.

TDS.

Letterman never worked steadily as a stand-up comic. His major gig in recent years has come via Netflix’s interview series, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”

We still miss Letterman’s wit on the late-night scene. There was no one quite like him on late-night or any other time slot.

Had he never given up his throne, though, he might sound shockingly like Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel.