The Best Late Night and Talk Show Hosts, Ranked
Rank late night and talk show hosts head-to-head, Johnny Carson vs David Letterman and Conan vs Colbert, then see the community's ranking. Early results (n = 12): too few finished brackets to call a leader yet. Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
Seth MeyersLate Night
Graham NortonThe Graham Norton Show
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Talk Show Hosts: early results
Early results (n = 12). Win rate across 180 head-to-head picks from 12 finished brackets. n is the number of matchups behind each win rate; only entrants with 30 or more are listed.
| # | Late-night host | W–L | Win rate | vs .500 | Titles | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conan O'BrienConan | 30–6 | 83.3% | 6 | 36 | |
| 2 | Stephen ColbertThe Late Show | 22–11 | 66.7% | 1 | 33 |
Talk Show Hosts: an early tier list
Early results (n = 12) Too few finished brackets to call yet; the tiers settle as more people play. Placed by win rate, steadied toward 50% for entrants with few matchups: S is 75% or more, A 60%, B 50%, C 40%, D 25%.
Stier, win rate 75% or more
- Conan O'Brien
Atier, win rate 60% or more
- Stephen Colbert
- Graham Norton
Btier, win rate 50% or more
- Jon Stewart
- Jimmy Kimmel
- Jimmy Fallon
- Seth Meyers
- Johnny Carson
Ctier, win rate 40% or more
- John Oliver
- Oprah Winfrey
- James Corden
Dtier, win rate 25% or more
- Trevor Noah
- David Letterman
- Ellen DeGeneres
- Jay Leno
- Craig Ferguson
Ftier, win rate 0% or more
- Nobody yet
How the Talk Show Hosts bracket works
This late-night host ranking is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — Johnny Carson or David Letterman? Oprah Winfrey or Conan O'Brien? — and after 15 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. Nobody can hold 16 shows in their head at once, but everybody can answer "this one" — so the order you end up with is one you will actually stand behind.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 16-slot size (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), with every one of the 16 shows in the field. The draw is seeded: the same for everyone today, different tomorrow, and different again whenever you press New draw. You can also play it at 8 slots for a shorter or longer run.
15 picks, 4 rounds
- Round of 168 matchups
- Quarterfinals4 matchups
- Semifinals2 matchups
- Final1 matchup
Roughly 1-2 minutes start to finish at the default size.
All 16 entrants
All 16 entrants are listed below, including Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Conan O'Brien. Updated
- Johnny CarsonThe Tonight Show
- David LettermanLate Night / Late Show
- Oprah WinfreyThe Oprah Winfrey Show
- Conan O'BrienConanPhoto: Adam Chitayat / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jimmy FallonThe Tonight ShowPhoto: Montclair Film Festival / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Jimmy KimmelJimmy Kimmel Live!
- John OliverLast Week TonightPhoto: Neil Grabowsky / Montclair Film Festival / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Jon StewartThe Daily ShowPhoto: PhilipRomanoPhoto / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Stephen ColbertThe Late ShowPhoto: PhilipRomanoPhoto / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
- Seth MeyersLate NightPhoto: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Ellen DeGeneresThe Ellen DeGeneres ShowPhoto via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- Graham NortonThe Graham Norton ShowPhoto: PhilipRomanoPhoto / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
- Trevor NoahThe Daily ShowPhoto: Web Summit Qatar / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- James CordenThe Late Late ShowPhoto: iDominick / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Craig FergusonThe Late Late ShowPhoto: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Jay LenoThe Tonight Show
Tier list instead?
Load all 16 into the tier list maker and sort them into S through F yourself: same entrants, no matchups.
Open the tier list makerMissing something?
Build your own late-night host bracket with exactly the entrants you want, then share the link.
Open the bracket makerGetting a ranking you actually agree with
- Judge the whole run, not just the best season, or every prestige show wins by default.
- The default run puts all 16 shows in the draw. Short on time? Drop to 8 slots — a quicker run over a random 8 of them.
- Use undo the moment you regret a pick. One reflex answer in an early round can knock out a favourite before it gets going.
Questions people ask
How many shows are in the Talk Show Hosts bracket?
The pool holds 16 shows. A default run puts all of them in the draw and takes 15 picks across 4 rounds: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final. Other field sizes are available too — 8, 16 slots.
Which shows are included?
Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Ellen DeGeneres and Graham Norton, plus 4 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Talk Show Hosts bracket take?
About 1-2 minutes — 15 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to an 8-slot bracket. No account is needed, and a run saves after every pick, so you can stop and jump back in later.
Can I turn the result into S/A/B tiers?
Both are here, and the bracket is closer to a tier list than it looks. It ends with a champion, a runner-up and then every other show grouped by the round it went out in — which is exactly a set of tiers, decided by 15 direct comparisons rather than by your first guess at a layout. What it deliberately does not do is claim a precise gap between two shows that never met. If you would rather place the shows into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 16 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
Can I compare my order with other people's?
Every completed bracket feeds the Talk Show Hosts community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 16 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
What if a show I wanted is missing?
Use the bracket maker: add your own shows, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 16 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.