The bottom line: Late night talk shows are DEAD!! They're simply advertisement for folks who have a band, wrote a book or made a movie. Whoopie!!
Bring back old movies.
I'm watching Andy, Barney and Opie in the afternoon...in lieu of a dumb soap. Very Happy!!
But I'm old....Maybe the young'ns (18-25) like the late talk shows??
To say that they're "dead" might be a little premature. I understand that both Letterman and Kimmel make money hand-over-fist for their networks, precisely because their cost of production relative to their commercial revenue generated is so very low - much lower than a scripted drama that would generate similar revenue numbers.
The Tonight Show, up until 8 months ago was the MOST profitable show on NBC, with the Today Show a close second - per hour, of course. Given the payoff to O'Brien, and the added production costs for Leno, they will probably lose money this year for the first time ever. But, it's expected that they'll return to profitability next year, even if they only post modest ratings.