On the topic of late night TV

Last night I watched The Tonight Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien because I was curious how they'd do without their writers. Both looked very uncomfortable, but I thought Leno was okay while O'Brien was just plain bad. I found that more than a little disappointing because I'm a big Conan fan and I've been looking forward to the day he takes over the Tonight Show. I'll be interested to see how both progress without their writers. Already tonight it looks like Leno is more comfortable and his monologue was actually funny-something I rarely thought of his with-writers monologues. If Conan cannot up his game without writers, I might rethink who I'd rather see host the Tonight Show.