Disclaimer: I am rarely awake when any of the late night shows air anymore. I actually don't remember the last time I watched one of these programs in real time. I am far less informed on this topic than I was during freshmen year when we literally watched Conan every night until 1:30AM. This being the case, I have a somewhat different perspective on this topic.
I occasionally watch the 7PM and 7:30PM reruns of Stewart and Colbert the following day or on Hulu. I tend to watch all of The Daily Show and just the highlights of The Colbert Report. I still remember watching the first episode of The Colbert Report during sophomore year. You could tell how nervous Colbert was and how well he wanted the show to go. "The Word" segment was my clear favorite, but it seems like that's not a part of the show anymore or at least not commonly enough for a sporadic viewer like myself to notice. On the other hand, I do generally follow what's going on with The Daily Show, but that's more a function of my interest in Stewart as a personality more so than an interest in the show itself. Whether it's the Rally to Restore Sanity or Stewart's many appearances as the guest on other talk shows, I do enjoy listening to the man's opinions whether I agree with them or not. My current knowledge of the rest of the late night hosts is limited to what New York Magazine puts in their "Last Night on Late Night" video compilation.
Bill Simmons has mentioned this before and both Colls and Phil made similar points in their posts, but there is just not a compelling enough case to sit through an hour of the traditional late nigh program anymore. You can watch "the good parts" the next day or whenever you want on Hulu or YouTube. To appreciate fully the recurring skits you have to watch consistently and that is too often an unrealistic demand on our late night attention spans when we can easily switch channels and watch 20 second highlight segments on SportsCenter. I also agree wholeheartedly with Phil's point that the draw of celebrity access that late night shows rely on has weakened to the point of irrelevancy. You'll notice that none of the videos Colls posted were of celebrity interviews. Some of the skits involved celebrities and are doubtlessly made more memorable by their appearance, but the sit down interviews themselves are often bland and unremarkable. I assume this is the result of the increasing role of PR managers and publicists whose success is measured by the absence of any outlandish or controversial associations to their client. For this reason, the interviews I have seen often seem over-produced or generic; we find out that "celebrities are actually not that different from the rest of us" or hear "a funny story about working with Scorcese for the first time." The only "must-see" segments are no longer restricted to real time viewing, which relegates the show itself to second-tier or third-tier importance behind Seinfeld reruns or sports programming.
As I said, I am usually not awake when these shows air, but these are the reasons why even when I am awake, I do not watch these programs. During the pre-Twitter and celebrity reality show days, I did in fact watch these shows with more regularity so I assume that some or even most of the motive for the decline in my interest has less to do with shows than with outside cultural factors. But, the shows have been complicit in their growing irrelevance. They have shown an almost intransigent resistance to change in this regard, which coupled with the explosion in viewer choice helps explain the decline in viewership across the board. The general format, i.e. short monologue, skit, interview, maybe another skit, interview, musical or comedic act, has been in place for years. That format will remain good enough as long as the baby boomers are alive and watching. After that, I expect to see more half-hour and targeted shows resembling Comedy Central's approach.
If I had to pick the "titans" of late night then I'd go with Stewart in first and Colbert slightly behind. Especially as we head toward the 2012 general election, I'd expect both of their shows to move up in the ratings. Stewart has been on the cover of New York Magazine and Rolling Stone within the past 12 months. You can't say that about any of the other hosts. Despite being on Comedy Central and Stewart's protestations, both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have strong points of view, and the trend toward opinionated news and culture sources only strengthens the import of both shows while weakening the relevance of the decidedly impartial network late night shows. The most (only?) genuinely interesting event in network late night over the last five years was the NBC/Conan/Leno debacle. It's not a good sign when a debacle is the most poignant example of your cultural significance. I would, however, recommend that you all see the documentary "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop". It ranks up there with "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" in its excellence at displaying the manic obsession its subject has with working and staying relevant. I laughed more at/with Conan during the documentary than during any of his shows over the past few years.
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