Now that it's all over (for these two,anyway) who won the Late Night Wars?

Dave

Leno is a footnote and a cautionary tale. Letterman reinvented late night talk, started two franchises that continued after his departure and produced a third that continues as well.

Letterman by a mile.

I say Letterman, as well. But Leno consistently beat him in the ratings.

Bruce Springsteen never had a number one hit, but he'll be remembrered long after Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam are forgotten

That's true. And a apt comparison.

Dave, without question.

Dave, no question.

If Jay had bothered to stay with a bit of the persona he brought when he was a guest on Dave's show, it might have been close, but instead, he went soft.

Jay......at least he still does an interesting car show and has his standup. Dave's 12:30 show will be remembered for a long time but that 11:30 time slot belonged to Carson in a way that can't be repeated.

Dave. Jay was safe and dull and boring. In my opinion, he brought nothing to the table. Letterman, especially at NBC and early at CBS, was an innovator and pioneer.

Jay stepped into an institution, but he didn't really do anything groundbreaking. He was safe and people tuned in for safe. That is fine for ratings, but what does it offer long term?

Dave created.

Jay may have won the ratings, but Dave wins the legacy.

Dave.

Dave was supposed to be Carson's heir apparent. Leno got lucky there too.

Carson wanted Dave but NBC wanted Jay for some dumb reason. I've always been a Dave fan. When he moved to the earlier slot on CBS, he toned things down a bit for the earlier hour but didn't make it mindless pablum like Jay did. Jay went out of his way to hold onto all the grandma viewers.

Dave set up Craig Fergusons contract so if CBS didn't offer him the spot replacing Dave, Craig would get an extra ten million. Dave knows how networks think and takes care of his people.

'Course, we all win because we get Colbert in September. I'll be very curious to see what he does with the new show.

In a head to head competition between Dave and Jay, I don't see how anyone except someone who just hates Dave can say Jay won out in the end. Just look at the send offs the two received. No one mourned Jay's passing.

I noticed that as well. Plenty of celebrities showed up to honor Jay, but I don't remember people being in tears like we saw with Ray Romano, Norm MacDonald, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jack Hannah saying goodbye to Dave. And I don't remember comedians saying that Jay was the reason that they got into comedy or that he was their idol.

When Carson left it was Carson leaving, and everybody knew that he had made the careers of dozens of comedians. I think that with Dave you have young comedians whose first exposure to the sarcasm and absurdity of National Lampoon style humor was on Late Night. Letterman didn't invent that brand of humor, but he was able to package it in a nightly format and show others how they could work it into their acts (through his monologue and segments and by inviting a wide range of out-of-the-box performers and oddities onto his show).

Jay did a great job of maintaining The Tonight Show. But that was about it. We'll all remember the Velcro suit and Larry Bud Melman and the Monkey Cam. Nobody's going to tell their kids about a Jaywalking segment.

Amen

Well said Robert