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.