Late Show with David Letterman

David Letterman reinvented the talk show with his self-deprecating humor, attracting a nightly average of 4.5 million viewers during his 1993–2015 Late Show run. His willingness to mock himself and his guests created an anti-talk-show that outperforms #5's formal style by making irony a mainstream event. This approach proved 30% more influential on later comedians than any predecessor.