Nightline surpasses Letterman

Jay Leno’s reruns are bringing in bigger ratings than Letterman’s new shows. Nightline is now bringing in bigger ratings than Letterman. When Nightline out rates your show, you know you are in trouble.

Since I am curious about the Entertainment Industry, I wondered, “Gee, why is Letterman’s ratings going down?” The complaints I hear is that Letterman has become lazy, that he does the same thing again and again, has become too political, and the show just isn’t that entertaining anymore. People also complain about his multiple conversations with that musician on his staff throughout the show. Strangely, many people cite the O’Reilly interview where Letterman said, “60% of everything you say is crap”. Now, I don’t watch O’Reilly and I don’t watch Letterman (can’t even watch Conan because Conan pissed off the TV manager down here in Texas or something). So I hunted down this clip to find out why it would turn people away. In the clip, you can see how the show wasn’t lighthearted and got too serious. It is an example of how not to do political comedy (be warned, not funny). [Webmaster’s note: Dead link]

Johnny Carson knew his place. Apparently, Carson was a big liberal but he never let his show become bogged down about politics. He kept that stuff off stage because people wanted entertainment and to laugh, not serious stuff.

Here is an example of how to do proper political comedy. I normally don’t like Triumph, but this clip is a good example of how to do it right. Notice how Triumph mocks the people, the politicians and their workers, and not the beliefs as they were?

People, of any political persuasion, enjoy watching their politicians mocked but never their own beliefs.