Middle of the night musing in the middle of the day

[jon88]

Not to point a finger, but I'm just reading Ken Tucker over at EW on Leno and O'Brien and all that. He's one of many people who mention Craig Ferguson as being heir apparent to Letterman's slot

Comments

[tahnan]

I think it's one of those Peter Principle things. Everyone knows that 11:30 is the main late-night slot, and that the one that follows it is the second-string slot. Therefore, anyone who's good at late night should be aspiring to get the 11:30 slot, in the same way that anyone who's good in the 11:30 slot is aspiring to get a 10pm slot.

Of course, that's not true--Leno might have been adequate at 11:30 (I never watched), but he was apparently dismally dull at 10pm (or so I gather). And similarly, I read you as saying, for Ferguson. But that's the Peter Principle for you: the assumption is that anyone good at their job will be even better at a "better" job.