Jay Leno is a jerk

Overall, Letterman said it best: "I miss Johnny Carson. I mean, by God, when Johnny quit, he quit."

For those of you who don't know (likely that's none of you), Leno has managed to take The Tonight Show back from Conan O'Brien.

Jay Leno is now in the position to use a few of the same Judge Ito jokes he's been telling since the beginning of the O.J. Simpson trial to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the trial verdict.

This is the same Leno who also took The Tonight Show from Letterman way back when. And who has never spent a dime of the hosting money he earned over 17 years, but still wants more.

Personally, I dislike Leno for two reasons: 1) He isn't funny. He is as a stand-up. But, as a host, he's flattering, safe and centrist-leaning and relies too much on easy innuendo and broad populism. 2) He isn't nice. Despite having the reputation of a "nice guy" with his aging fan base, he's repeatedly shown that he's willing to do whatever he must to be #1 and to get the #1 job.

Really, though, none of this matters. The battle is fiery and important in pop culture circles. But you’ll have a hard time finding anyone who watches any talk show (myself included). The only person I know who consistently watches a talk show is my Mom. And she likes Jay Leno.

Talk shows are stupid. Even the good shows are relatively uninteresting commercials where celebrities show try to sell their movies, CDs, TV shows or books. Talk shows are basically the Home Shopping Network with a few minutes of quickly thrown together stand-up and random, occasionally funny sketches.

And they’re an anachronism. They made sense when there were only three networks but don’t in a world with 100s of channels and 24-hour cycles. Especially when John Stewart and Stephen Colbert are stealing most of the young, affluent viewers.

So what’s the moral of the story? Two things: 1) Jay Leno is a jerk. 2) Nobody cares.