After addressing why he disappeared for five days during Wednesday’s press conference, Mark Sanford seemed ashamed.  His life had officially fallen apart because his career was finished and his marriage was done.  Sanford’s actions – flying to Argentina to hook up with a woman who wasn’t his wife – was incredibly stupid, but also hilarious for late night hosts.

Stephen Colbert, originally from South Carolina, said: “I would never in my life have believed that Gov. Mark Sanford was capable of doing something interesting.”

David Letterman, trying to avoid another Sarah Palin controversy, said: “I have to be careful here, I haven’t had much luck with jokes about governors” he said.  But then added: “Why can’t he be like our governor and use a local escort service?”

If you’ve been reading this section on HooplaNow.com lately, you know that it’s a very exciting time for late night talk shows.  Jimmy Fallon is starting to get his feet under him, Conan O’Brien has turned in six outstanding episodes at The Tonight Show and David Letterman is now being forced to wheel out big-named guests to battle Conan.

That’s not to mention Craig Ferguson’s show (which is getting much better ratings as Ferguson’s brand continues to grow), Last Call with Carson Daly, (which is smartly getting back to Daly’s roots in interviewing quality bands like Green Day and Lily Allen) and Jimmy Kimmel’s show (which has used to Internet to build its audience).

With all of that praise being passed out, it must be noted that The Colbert Report is probably the smartest and funniest late night show of them all.  Colbert, to battle with O’Brien and Letterman (and to, you know, support the troops), went over to Iraq this week and do his show for the troops.  Last night’s show was hilarious, especially the part where President Obama orders Colbert’s head to be shaved.

The thing to take away from this post is that even though it’s the summer and there’s a bunch of crappy TV on, it’s an awesome time to watch late night shows.  There seems to be a sense of urgency in the genre and that, as a result, has forced everyone to step their collective games up and battle each other.

Be sure to stay tuned to late night TV and HooplaNow.com as the summer progresses for more updates on the late night tv “wars.”

Before we get into this post, I must say that Howard Stern is probably my favorite celebrity.  He’s supremely talented in what he does, he’s willing to speak his mind and if you’ve heard his show, he actually does seem like a good person.

David Letterman asked Stern to be his first guest in the battle against Conan O’Brien, which began Monday night.  In the first segment, Stern asked Letterman:

“How are you feeling,” Stern asked Dave, “that Jay left late-night television, and we’ve got a new guy to compete with? And I want to say something to this audience about loyalty. Dave put me on national television many, many years ago, before I was known, and I have stuck with Dave. I didn’t like Jay. I never liked Jay. I can’t stand Jay… Here (pointing to Dave) is the host we want to watch.”

If you’re interested in the entire video, it’s up on YouTube here.

There’s one thing that could significantly help Letterman beat Conan and that’s talking about Conan directly.  The Stern show does this all the time with Imus, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of his competitors and it helps fill time and is generally makes for really good radio.  Now what would be better for Letterman’s show than to gently poke fun at Conan?  It’s the elephant in the room that everyone cares about now that Jay Leno is out at the Tonight Show and it would be a consistent source of laughter.

Now, I’ve never worked on a late night show, so I don’t know how exactly the Late Show would do this.  But the thing that’s clear in the first week of the new Tonight Show is that Conan’s first 25 minutes are far and away superior to Letterman’s.  His writers are funnier, he targets a younger audience with his humor and his staples (Year 3000) are simply better.  Letterman needs something to fight this advantage with and I think he should start to make fun of Conan on a regular basis.