Rating Late Night TV Hosts, Past and Present

It would be a close match between the two for me, too, and I can see you favoring Dave over Johnny.

I placed them even in the interview because both of them could have an actual, enlightening conversation with a wide array of guests, without having the proclivity of so many other hosts to be looking for an opening for a punchline, though both were very good at the perfect ad lib. They directed the attention toward the guest. I have to admit to a somewhat sadistic enjoyment of watching Dave get that shark grin when he was getting ready to maul some narcissistic nitwit like Paris Hilton, though. 

I would call Carson the master of the monologue, in that he always came out with solid material and delivered it with incredible poise, but also had the ability to turn a dud joke into possibly the most memorable part of the segment with some "saving" comment, often improvised.

I preferred watching Letterman's monologues to Leno's, but listed Jay as strong in that part of his show, the implacable stand-up comic. Letterman would sometimes do very odd things, like repeating the same joke for days, and sometimes weeks, in a row, in an almost Andy Kaufman approach to see how much he could get under the skin of the audience. Dave was undeniably fearless when it came to roasting public figures, even his own network bosses and the GE owners of the network. 

Letterman seemed to like the interview part of his show the best, and tapered off from the skits which had really helped put him on the map early on. Many late-comers to his show don't know how outrageous he could be as a younger man. But Carson never quit his sketch bits, and it's hard to imagine anyone suppressing a laugh at an Art Fern skit. 

I think Chelsea hit the level of fame she wanted, and then left her talk show when she had enough of it. She seems to be much more into the Producer role. She knows where the real power and money are.