Pluskylang Great Film overall

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

SnoopyStyle It's a behind-the-scenes movie about the battle between Jay Leno (Daniel Roebuck) and David Letterman (John Michael Higgins) for the Tonight Show on NBC. Jay's hard-charging agent Helen Kushnick (Kathy Bates) schemes to get him the show. They are approached by CBS. Then she gets him a secret deal with Warren Littlefield (Bob Balaban) and John Agoglia (Reni Santoni). When Johnny Carson surprises everybody by announcing his retirement, Leno is given the show. Letterman hires agent Michael Ovitz (Treat Williams). Kushnick steps on some toes as Tonight Show exec and starts making enemies.This is a solid TV movie from HBO. The minutia of each piece of information can be pulled apart by those involved. Kathy Bates is great and I'm sure Kushnick has plenty of bones to pick with this movie. Jay Leno doesn't come off well either as a naive puppy desperate for approval. Letterman comes off much better. This is overwrought but the material allows for it. It's a fun take on a fascinating story.

hockey475 The other reviews say it all but watch Treat Williams for his awe inspiring speech to David Letterman. I wish someone said that to me sometime.And Bob Balaban may be Littlefield's clone-He tells Helen Kushnik to " F you and the horse you rode in on."It's amazing how the actors captured the essence of the book characters by Bill Carter.Higgins portrayal of Letterman is spot on...When he refers to his CBS contract, he says "It would put a smile on Jack Benny's face... and that's in the condition he is now."You can watch this over and over again.

Danny Blankenship Over the years I've watched this movie many times from seeing it on "HBO" and I now own a copy on DVD. I must say it's very memorable and entertaining in the meantime it's interesting and educational too. As any TV fan can relate to the time of the early 90's when the time came up to replace Johhny Carson the TV living legend of "The Tonight Show" who's it gonna be Jay or Dave? This original film from HBO "The Late Shift" stays true to form and depicts the real events very well showing the behind the scenes battle between networks heads of NBC and CBS and even ABC they were all fighting for the services of Jay and Dave. The acting makes it seem real as very little actual TV footage is shown with real life people as the actors portraying Leno and Letterman make it seem so real. I haven't read the Bill Carter book so I don't know if it stayed true to the pages, but I have highly enjoyed this film over the years. From the moment when it starts showing CBS entertainment heads watching Leno sub for Johhny and they decide they want to get in on the late night game. Yet when Carson announces his unexpected retirement NBC wants to stay loyal with Leno yet conflict arrives when Letterman wants a crack at the slot at 11:30 too. It was fun to watch the wacky meeting with Michael Ovitz(Treat Williams)who makes all networks want to consider Letterman for a show. It was interesting to see the scene of Johhny telling Letterman by phone in a direct way to walk from NBC and consider CBS. And by the way Rich Little was terrific as Johhny Carson his portrayal couldn't be matched. And plenty of tense moments were provided by showing the bickering and firing of Leno's talent manager Helen which NBC heads pressured him to do. Overall great film that showed what TV is really like and it proves that networks are power and money hungry while showing that's it's a cutthroat business. Clearly there's no business like show business. Great work from HBO very memorable and a watch anytime it showed the true story of the late night wars.

mikey_editor as a former TV editor, I can say this is as authentic as it gets. It even led to Letterman's producer (thought to be a source) resigning (eventually) in real life. Letterman was outraged (OK, so one goofy thing is it has him throwing softballs at a tire swing on his estate; total fabrication) but the main information is hilariously true, from the silly bidding war for Letterman once he decided to leave NBC to Leno's problems with an agent who was not ready for big time, but who he let run the show (almost to a disastrous exit) out of his famed loyalty. If any of you kids don't grasp the idea of why Letterman is jealous to this day, see this tape.