An Uninteresting Post about Late Night Talk Shows

Lucky me: I saw Paris Hilton interviewed by David Letterman last night, and I'm watching her on Craig Ferguson tonight. (Not that this isn't my own fault. I should really start going to bed earlier.) I prefer Craig to Dave, but this is proving that David Letterman is a much better interviewer.

Craig is really enthusiastic and fun when he's interviewing somebody he cares about or likes, but he's really stilted with this. He's being perfectly nice and everything, but he can't put Paris at her ease. He also can't really talk her on a level where he can start a fluid conversation. (He tried to talk to her about his favorite subject, Project Runway, but she doesn't watch and it was a very awkward non-starter.)

This is strangely increasing my respect for David Letterman, that he can talk to Paris Hilton in a way that it sounds like a real conversation. Of course, this could just be that Dave has been doing this a lot longer. For example, Jon Stewart isn't a great interviewer, but he's gotten so much better since he started doing The Daily Show that it's really astounding. (He was SO BAD at first.)

Then again, one of the reasons I like Ferguson is that he's a little too honest. In his position, he ought to come off like he likes all the celebrities he interviews equally, but you can tell he doesn't. That's how I would feel! If I had a show, there would be people I'd be totally psyched to meet and talk to (and that group would overlap pretty well with Craig's, from what I've seen) and some people I'd just have to force myself to chat with. He also endeared himself to me the other night when he was talking to Bill Maher about his Religulous thing and you could tell he was uncomfortable with Bill Maher's deal with that.

This is also an interesting demonstration/reminder that interviewing people is a skill, a craft even. And I can't decide whether I wish Craig Ferguson was better at it or not.