Will Kimmel Win the Late Night Wars?

Warning: contains language.

I was rooting for Conan O'Brien. He was supposed to be the late night talk show host of my generation, the guy who had built a beloved late night show from the ground up and kept it going for sixteen years in the slot following Jay Leno's "Tonight Show." "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" was the only one of these programs I watched regularly, the only one I sacrificed sleep for. Sure, Jon Stewart came along eventually and I always greatly respected Craig Ferguson's monologues, but Conan was my guy. And then of course, the "Tonight Show" transition fiasco happened and Conan ended up in the basic cable wastelands of TBS. The most promising of the younger late night comics was all but persona non grata, and prospects for the future looked grim.

Three years later, Jay Leno and David Letterman haven't gotten any younger, and there are once again signs of potential transition. However, this time the old timers aren't getting replaced. They're getting a new challenger. After years of indecision, ABC finally shifted "Nightline" to the post-midnight timeslot, and moved "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" up to 11:35 PM, in direct competition with Leno and Letterman. "Kimmel" is celebrating its tenth anniversary this week, and is another late night show that started out at the bottom and gradually built up a strong following over time. Letterman and Leno still attract the lion's share of the audience, but Kimmel has been doing better and better numbers with the most prized demographic, the 18-49 year-olds.

Last night Kimmel topped all his competitors in a heavily promoted episode where Matt Damon took over the show, renamed it "Jimmy Kimmel Sucks," and spent the hour interviewing a passel of high profile celebrities. It was the latest chapter in the ongoing fake feud between the comic and the actor that began with the running joke of Kimmel ending episodes with "Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." After Damon actually appeared on the show in 2006, matters escalated quickly. Prior to this, the high point of the feud had been the Emmy-winning "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" video, featuring Damon and Sarah Silverman, the retaliatory "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck" video, with Kimmel and Ben Affleck, and follow-ups where even Jennifer Garner got roped into the fun. I've never been a regular Kimmel viewer, but I know the videos. It seems like everybody does.

It's fascinating to look at how "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" has worked its way to this position over the years. I never thought much of Kimmel from his days on "The Man Show," and when ABC announced that they were putting him on late night, I expected he'd be about as successful as Carson Daly, which is to say, not very. However, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" has been solid when I've watched the show, and ABC has done a great job of integrating it with its other programming. "Dancing With the Stars" contestants are expected to stop by after they've been voted off. They hosted a cast reunion and aired alternate endings after the series finale of "Lost." And then there are the Kimmel post-Oscar specials, which have all but replaced the Barbara Walters interviews. And Kimmel's recent appearances at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and as host of the last Emmy awards. While I still don't like him nearly as much as Conan or Stewart or some of the others, it's clear that Kimmel has grown into the role of host, and I can see the appeal.

It's far too early to say yet where Kimmel will end up in the pecking order in the long run, but his prospects are good. "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" was very competitive with Jimmy Fallon and Craig Ferguson's shows in the post-midnight timeslot, and if those hosts end up succeeding Leno and Letterman, Kimmel has a significant head start building an audience at 11:35 PM. Of course, the networks could opt for different successors - Jon Stewart has been a favorite potential candidate for a long time. Arsenio Hall is coming back this year, perhaps to wreak unholy revenge upon David Letterman. Conan might muster up a turnaround and claw his way back into the conversation. And lest we forget, Chevy Chase is currently unemployed.

Unfortunately, age and technology have conspired to keep me on the sidelines. I've aged out of the late night audience, now valuing my sleep more than my need to be entertained during the midnight hour. I watch new episodes of "The Daily Show" the next morning, and the occasional clips of whatever made headlines on the other late night shows. So I watched the Matt Damon hosted episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" online, around twelve hours after it actually aired. I don't think I've actually seen any late night talk show live since the Letterman-Oprah détente. And I know I'm not the only one, as there have been consistent reports that late night audiences are shrinking, as the competition grows and the internet has taken its bite.

Best of luck, Mr. Kimmel.
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