My favorite late night talk show is Late Night with Conan O'Brien, but usually I fall asleep before then, and I watch the rerun the next night on Comedy Central - thank God for repurposing. During the 11:35PM timeslot, I usually tend towards The Late Show with David Letterman over The Tonight Show with Jay Leno - I am more in tune with Dave's New York crankiness over Jay's Everyman niceness. I feel that Jay is dumbing down his personality, and his Tonight Show persona doesn't show how smart as Jay really is. And it's not like Dave is always on...an interview he did with Harrison Ford while Ford was promoting K-19 was terribly weird (scroll to "Celebrity Gossip") and boring, with Dave obviously catering to Ford's dislike of interview by softpedaling the entire time. Conan O'Brien's interview with Harrison Ford was off-the-cuff, goofy and seemingly happy to be there, making fun of K-19, the very movie he was there to publicize. Ford has even contributed to Conan's Celebrity Secrets. Enough cannot be said about Conan, and in fact, I'll try to write more about him later.
Anyway, one reason to watch The Tonight Show would have to be Jay's correspondents, who include director Kevin Smith and Fred Willard, but the correspondent I will watch the Tonight Show for is intern Ross Matthew, aka Ross the Intern. Incredibly gay and smarter than he is gay, his celebrity interviews are maybe the best in the business today - especially in this age of panderers on Entertainment Tonight, E! News Daily, and Access Hollywood. (When trying to get George Clooney's attention, he yelled "Jorge!") If you're stuck inside because of the weather, check out Ross's escapades. The video of him and Gwyneth Paltrow is killer. And yes, he really is an intern.
