There is something about late night TV. When the demand (and ad rates) go down and a station has time to fill, there are four places they might turn: reruns of their regular lineup or news, infomercials, old shows they can get in syndication for cheap, and new shows they can get for cheap. I want to talk about the new shows. They are cheap for a reason. They have low budgets and rely not on writing or acting, but sensationalism and "regular" people. They're really bad, but sometimes they have something compelling, whether it's humor or just the ability to make you say 'oh my god' at some of the crazy things people will do or say.

Tell me about your favorites, or talk about mine:



Eye For An Eye

A bizarre court TV style show hosted by Kato Kaelin of all people, wherein judge "Extreme Akim" decides who is in the wrong and makes them perform some task befitting the crime. He waves around a miniature baseball bat "of justice" and points it at people when he talks to them.





Blind Date

A dating show with funny graphics sort of like VH1's "pop-up video" feature, pretending to say what's on a contestant's mind, point out bad outfits or other flaws, and generally make fun of people.





Unlike most dating shows, this one encouraged mismatches and trashiness. It has many segments displaying stupidity or other awfulness, including the "Hall of Shame".

I loved Eye For An Eye. I remember one episode where two sisters (or maybe friends) who were fighting over who owned a lottery ticket. Akeem took the ticket and hid it in a very full dumpster. He then told the women to get in the dumpster and whoever found the ticket could keep it.

Eye for an Eye, where has this show been all my life? They should take off Judge Judy and show this instead.

Anyway, here's my favorite Late Night Shows:

The Fifth Wheel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_5th_Wheel

Cheaters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheaters

These shows are totally a guilty pleasure of mine. They're so dumb, yet addicting.

Blind Date. I used to hate the show, but a few years later I started watching it.

Has anyone heard of The Lighter Side of Sports? I don't know if it's a late-night show, but it did air on ESPN in the 80s and 90s. In the 00s, however, it did air in syndication on late nights.

Otherwise, I prefer such syndicated late-night shows like elimiDATE,Change of Heart, and my personal favorite, Maximum Exposure. I didn't think Maximum Exposure was an awful show, I just loved it so much because the announcer's constant use of verbal gags and slapstick banter.

Another late-night show that I liked that wasn't that bad would be Street Smarts. Not quite a reality show per se, but it was a game show that had a bit of screwball humor, such as other game shows like the short lived Comedy Central game show Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, a British import. In other words, I didn't think that DFYT aired during late nights.

You guys reminded me just how great DVR is. Late nights in the 90s were so depressing. I don't know now because I don't watch late night TV.

Undressed.

The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. In fact, anything he was on sucked.

The Arsenio Hall Show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyB1xB8NnnQ

Funny how 20 years ago Arsenio said in Newsweek: "I'm Going To Kick Jay Leno's Ass" and the show ended cancelled about a year later.Some years later he ended up working on The Tonight Show.

I love these shows! Street Smarts was hilarious.

Another thing I found our recently, the announcer for Max X now works for the Disney Channel.

That's what it said on one of the Wikipedia pages I linked up in my last post in this thread (the one for Max X, that is).

I loved Street Smarts.

I hated Late Friday it was a horrible replacement Friday Night on NBC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_Videos

There was some pretty strange things on in LA. Poorman use to buy time on different tv stations.

There was this show about Rap Music called Urban Nights that I didn't really like.

IMHO, Friday Night (Videos) wasn't that bad (despite the fact I was born in 1987, and never really stayed up to watch it). I mean the top-40 music videos in the 80s, and the variety-format in the 90s with entertainment reviews and stand up comedy. FN wasn't that horrid of a late-night show. Also IMHO, I thought Late Friday was a mundane stand-up comedy show (which I slightly enjoyed) that replaced said Friday Night (Videos).

When I was nearing the end of third grade, I loved NBC Nightside, which was nearing its twilight years. I especially liked the sports reports, the this-day-in-history segment, and the fact that it was filmed in Charlotte, NC, rather than New York City where ABC World News Now and CBS Up to the Minute were filmed. Another thing good about Nightside's twilight years, was the music they played during certain segments when there were no reporters or newscasters talking.

That's what I meant to say. I loved Friday Night/Friday Night Videos. Late Friday was the show I hated.

People think NBC messed up late night with the whole Conan & Jay thing, but Late Friday predates it by about 9 years.

Speaking of the trashiness of Late Friday, Poker After Dark was also one of the worst late-night shows I've seen in my life. Unlike any of the other poker shows I've seen, it was probably because it was a whole week of one game of Texas Hold-Em (my most preferred type of poker game) viewed in increments of 60-minute airings, once each night Monday thru Friday, the game begins on Monday and ends on Friday, with the winner being interviewed about his or her victory. During the week, however, whenever a player lost, (s)he would normally be interviewed about how (s)he lost that match. In other words, Poker After Dark was just a horrible late-night show.

Ah Yes welcome to a land the Under way under!! where the Sky's always black either in rain or shine!! Where everyone 's getting it on or just bitching about it!! yep great carreer move for the green ranger oh uh white I mean red uh Tommy from power rangers!! it's was meh... watched for the sex.. this was before I regot Skinnemax.....

the Late shift I think that is what is was called was bad. it was a spoof on those talk shows.

I never watched Poker After Dark. I'm not really interested in poker. I think I caught the show about 2 times in its series run.

Taz-Mania?