When Late-Night Rivals Fought Like Cats and Dogs
'Late Shift' recalled epic Leno-Letterman feud which sparked must-see TV
Strike Force Five is back, baby!
The five late-night talkers who read from the same Democratic playbook reunited this week to send off one of their own – Stephen Colbert.
It turns out that losing a reported $40 million for your bosses isn’t good for job security.
Sources inside CBS have suddenly become much more forthcoming about the economics of late-night television—go figure!— revealing that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has recently been running at an annual shortfall of $40 million. https://t.co/N0H1wR1qHp
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) July 18, 2025
Tell that to the quintet. The members take turns playing The Victim, each afraid that the next joke attacking President Donald Trump will be their last.
They’re safe, unless their names are Gina Carano, Roseanne Barr or M.I.A.
Late Night TV wasn’t always this way.
Yes, Americans fondly recall the Carson era, when “The Tonight Show” was the best way to drift off to sleep each night. Johnny Carson was the format’s master, a performer who poured everything into his art and kept audiences top of mind.
His legendary status endures.
What followed was, at times, as entertaining off-screen as it was on. David Letterman, NBC’s 12:30 pm superstar, felt he was the heir apparent to Carson. NBC disagreed, giving the gig to Jay Leno who offered a less subversive brand of humor.
The duo may have put on a happy face for millions of viewers, but the behind-the-scenes rivalry proved relentless. Author Bill Carter wrote a book about the industry slugfest – “The Late Shift.”
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Here’s Carter reminiscing about some of the crazy antics that made the book pop.
That is largely because so many people still talk to me about details in the book: about the bruising machinations of Jay’s manager Helen Kushnick to win him the job; about Letterman’s counter by hiring the then-zen god of Hollywood agenting, Michael Ovitz; about the internal conflict at NBC between supporters of each star; about the almost surreal late-minute offer to Dave to get the Tonight show (if he’d only wait a year for it); about the role Carson himself played in Letterman’s ultimate decision; about Jay’s sly-fox maneuver to eavesdrop on an NBC meeting determining his fate.
They even made an HBO movie about it.
Leno proved to be the right choice, lasting 22 years in the position. Letterman fought back, snagging his own program on CBS – “The Late Show.”
The rivalry ended up being one-sided, with Leno keeping NBC’s late-night ratings supremacy intact. Both hosts drew respectable crowds, though, and TV critics preferred Letterman’s acid wit over Leno’s heartland humor.
Still, that healthy competition made each host smarter, sharper and more engaged. It’s the American way, and there’s a reason both hosts lasted as long as they did.
Sadly, those days are gone.
Now, the Strike Force Five members are all on the same team, acting like brothers, not rivals. Why? They’re all pushing the same political agenda. Trump bad. Democrats good.
It’s that simple.
Some even transformed into campaign staffers toward that end. Both Colbert and Kimmel hustled up cash for President Joe Biden during his failed 2024 re-election campaign.
“The Tonight Show’s” Jimmy Fallon is part of the Five, but he’s essentially the odd man out. He’s not nearly as dogmatic in his progressive propaganda, and he consistently trails behind both Colbert and Kimmel in the ratings.
He might have avoided that fate by embracing the Carson/Leno model. Just the jokes. No bias, please.
Instead, Fallon embraced a softer version of the Colbert/Kimmel activism. And it worked out rather badly for him and the franchise.
Maybe he should quit the Five and start slinging some mud. It might wake up his inner Leno or Letterman in the process.
This hits the nail on the head.
It would be different if these hosts all had Core Beliefs that they held to. Actually there was a core belief – Democrat Party is always right and the GOP is always wrong – but it was worse than having no core beliefs. I’ve never understood it: why watch a talk show with an NPC host? Unless you’re an NPC yourself. Then it makes sense.
I was a huge Letterman fan at the time. I detested Leno. Looking back with a more rational brain, as opposed to the emotional one, I think we can all see that NBC made the right choice. Letterman was the more talented host. He was funnier, edgier, caustic, and just plain mean at times. I absolutely loved it, but most of America doesn’t enjoy that. They prefer the Jay Leno’s safe presentation of nice, pleasant, and cordial. After Jay Leno stepped down, I heard the other side of Jay Leno, and I forgot how funny that man actually was before he became The Tonight Show host.
I’m already expecting David Letterman to cry about, and feeling sorry for Stephen Colbert losing his show, on tomorrow night’s ’Late Show with Stephen Colbert’. Yeah, David Letterman is a guest star on tomorrow night’s’Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, on it’s final week, before next Thursday.
CBS made a mistake when they didn’t replace Letterman with Craig Ferguson. Fergie is much funnier and much less divisive.
I agree, Ferguson was so much better, however, he wanted out by the end, he was tired of doing it.
You are so right, but a part of me feels Ferguson did not get the job because he may not have wanted to relocate to New York(interestingly, the ENTIRE time The Late Show was hosted by Letterman, talk that he wanted to relocate from New York to Hollywood was frequent) and they may have wanted a host who would do the show in New York, not at Television City.