Watched. For old time's sake. Dave went on the air when I was 15 or so. My parents didn't think he was funny at all and that just made him more funny to me. Back in the pre-DirecTV days I used to watch his show more often than not. It was the background noise as my sleep timer ticked down. His show last night was not what I expected. A little tame and less emotional than I expected from it. (I did hate the ranting English guy who came on after him. No idea who it was, I was in another room working but could hear it).
Liked Letterman way more than Carson, exponentially more than Leno (what an assbag) and more than the rest they tried to run out there in the older days -- including Magic Johnson, Chevy Chase. I tried to like Arsenio, but his act (the first time around) was to noisy for me. The second time around it was like a time warp -- did we really just slide back into the 90s and parachute pants? -- and didn't connect. Conan is a non-factor really. but he doesn't do anything for me. I don't care for his humor usually.
I'm not hipster (or whatever) enough for Kimmel. He irritates me with his 'I'm cooler than you' smirk. I'm not smarmy (or whatever) enough for Jon Stewart, Colbert or that crew. I don't like their politicizing and it frightens me that so many, including some of the dearly departed here, looked to those clowns as legitimate news sources. You'll even see al.com run articles about what Stewart, that english guy I don't like, Colbert or some of those have to say about a topic. That's not news. Or shouldn't be. The late-late guys are unbearable. Even Seth Myers who was good on SNL is too much to take in the large dose of a talk-show format. And the guys with the funny accents? I never know what they are saying. Julia Roberts is on there and he's like "Sew, yah brambled aleen wad ya wee tyke, ahn pleece da beebah ohn da smutterin blankee, deed yah nouw?" I can't watch that.
Fallon I like. He's a lot like what Letterman was like in the early days. Letterman changed the whole dynamic of the talk show with his pet tricks and human tricks and Larry 'Bud' Melman. Fallon is now pushing the boundaries a little further and he's doing it well. His bits are consistently entertaining (as Dave's used to be) and he gets people to do things they normally wouldn't (like Dave used to do). If you haven't seen Christina Aguilera channel Cher, Britney and Shakira on his show, look that up on the YouTubes. Fallon's the only one worth watching now.
But I usually watch Law & Order instead.