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Jay Leno
Jay Leno hosted NBC's "The Tonight Show" from 1992 to 2009 and again from 2010 to 2014, becoming the most-watched host in the program's history by total viewership across his tenure, built around a broadly accessible, non-controversial comedic style distinct from Letterman's more ironic approach. His extended run atop the late-night ratings for most of his tenure made "The Tonight Show" the dominant program in its time slot for the better part of two decades, and his "Jaywalking" segments, featuring on-the-street interviews highlighting people's lack of basic knowledge, became one of the most widely replayed recurring bits in late-night history. Leno's 2009-2010 return to "The Tonight Show" after NBC's failed attempt to transition the program to Conan O'Brien became one of the most significant and controversial network programming decisions in television history, drawing sustained public criticism of NBC's handling of the succession. Leno's combination of his record-setting "Tonight Show" viewership and his central role in one of television's most controversial succession controversies has made him one of the most commercially significant late-night hosts in the genre's history.
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David Letterman
David Letterman hosted "Late Night" on NBC beginning in 1982 and later "Late Show" on CBS from 1993 to 2015, developing a deliberately ironic, absurdist comedic sensibility that stood in deliberate contrast to the more traditional show-business warmth of predecessors like Johnny Carson. His extended, self-aware bits — including Stupid Pet Tricks, Top Ten Lists, and elaborate stunts involving dropping objects off buildings — established a specific brand of ironic, format-breaking comedy that directly influenced a generation of subsequent late-night hosts. Letterman's rivalry with Jay Leno over succeeding Johnny Carson at "The Tonight Show," which Letterman lost, became one of the most widely chronicled behind-the-scenes network dramas in television history, documented extensively in the book and later HBO film "The Late Shift." Letterman's combination of his format-breaking ironic comedic style and his historically significant rivalry with Jay Leno has made him one of the most influential and widely imitated late-night hosts in television history.
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