"The Late Shift" is indeed a great book. I read it a couple times and it was fascinating to find out how nasty things were behind the scenes in the late 80's and early 90's.
leno started winning the ratings after hugh grant said sorry on his show.
the "late shift" was a story that took place before letterman went to cbs. it was the story of how he was passed over for the tonight show that was given to leno instaed.
I am also an avid David Letterman fan. It has always bugged me that Leno would steal bits that Letterman started months before. I was surprised, though, to see Letterman doing the headlines like Leno.
Leno is probably the hardest working late night host. If I remember correctly, he does a show, goes out to eat, then he and another writer go to his house and write jokes for the next day's show until the wee hours of the morning. He then goes to bed and comes in in the mid morning to keep working, right up until showtime.
Then, on weekends, he's traveling and doing standup all over the place. He's always doing Vegas, and can often be seen in LA at the comedy clubs.
That being said, I've always enjoyed Letterman more. Leno is a heck of a nice guy (according to almost everyone) and works hard, but Letterman is more my sense of humor. I just don't think Letterman works as hard as Leno. But, smart ass takes less effort.
> I have always been a die-hard Letterman guy since the early days at NBC and for many years he was the undisputed KING of late night(even if the ratings didn't support that claim)
Wouldn't an undisputed king have the ratings to support that title?
Letterman used to be funny, but then parachute pants were once popular, too. I'm not sure why he stopped being funny.
I guess I should have said Letterman was CRITICALLY the undisputed king because that certainly was the case in the mid to late 90's through the early 2000's and he has the Emmy awards to prove it(something Leno does not have). Just because one show gets better ratings than another doesn't mean it's better.