Top 10 Greatest Talk Show Hosts of All Time

Johnny Carson will be forever known as the king of late night television. His 30 years as host of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson serves as an achievement - both in longevity and artistically - for current and future talk show hosts to aspire. Carson reinvented the monologue, scored with clever skits and memorable characters, and became loved by Americans young and old. Nearly every major talk show host of the last 20 years includes Carson as both an inspiration and an influence, including David Letterman, current Tonight Show host Jay Leno and former host Conan O'Brien.

Beloved internationally and the sovereign of a media empire that includes television, film, radio, web and social media, education, and more. She has her own network and slate of shows. She's been called "the world's most powerful woman" by Time magazine and Life pinned her with the title "the most influential woman and the most influential African-American of her generation." The magazine even included her in a list of the "100 people who have change the world." The list included Jesus Christ and Mother Theresa. And there are just way too many accolades to list. What's amazing is .. this all started with one little talk show, launched in Chicago 25 years ago and ending in the summer of 2011.

You'll find a lot of Tonight Show hosts on our list, if only because the early Tonight Show was such a prolific innovator of the genre. Jack Paar followed Steve Allen. Perhaps most famously, Paar abruptly quit The Tonight Show after one of his monologue jokes was censored by NBC. He left right after delivering his monologue the following evening, leaving his announcer, Hugh Downs, to fill in for the remainder of the program. He eventually returned a month later, delivering the famous line, "As I was saying before I was interrupted … I believe the last thing I said was 'There must be a better way to make a living than this.' Well, I've looked - and there isn't."

The indisputable heir apparent to Johnny Carson's late night crown, David Letterman is the talk show host talk show hosts yearn to be. Much has been made of Dave and his departure from NBC after the network gave Jay Leno The Tonight Show in the early 90s. And though Tonight regularly rocks the ratings, the show hasn't had the same power and clout that it did under Allen, Paar and Carson. Would it if Letterman moved from his Late Night spot to Tonight? Probably. It's all water under the bridge now, and Letterman is the stage you'll find today's biggest stars and musical acts. Expect there to be as much hullaballoo over Dave's eventual replacement when he decides to hang up the suit and tie as there was over Carson's replacement. After all, that's the way it should be.

You can't talk about talk shows without talking about Dick Cavett. The man hosted chat fests for more than 50 years, and his namesake program, The Dick Cavett Show, has appeared in various forms on ABC, CBS, PBS, USA, CNBC and TCM in daytime, late night and prime time. He writes a blog for The New York Times and is the author of Talk Show. Slate writer Clive James calls Cavett "a true sophisticate with a daunting intellectual range, Cavett was the most distinguished talk-show host in America, if sophistication and an intellectual breadth were what you wanted."

The youngest addition to our group, but still one of the most influential. Jon Stewart and The Daily Show have influenced the political discourse like no other talk show before it. Some give him credit (or blame) for quashing the careers of more than one cable news pundit. And his nightly guests have evolved from celebrities promoting their latest entertainment to scientists, activists, senators and presidents. His show is a must-stop for political campaigners - right- or left-wing - and Stewart provides intellectual discourse and, often, probing questions that would rival Sunday morning's political shows. To top it all off, the man is downright funny and incredibly likable. Which is probably his most secret weapon of all.

For some, Rosie O'Donnell is a lightning rod of controversy, churning up debate via her blog and her causing a ruckus with her year-long stint as co-host of The View. But in 1986, when her daytime talk show The Rosie O'Donnell Show premiered - and was an overnight success - Rosie was dubbed "The Queen of Nice". In fact, her throw-back show (as in throw-back to the honest and entertaining talk shows Merv Griffin and Dick Cavett presented) won the hearts of millions because the other daytime fair at the time was rough, tumble and often mean-spirited (The Jerry Spring Show, Maury, The Sally Jesse Rafael Show). The success of her show helped launch Ellen and brought a new sensibility to afternoon talk shows. She'll return, with the new Rosie O'Donnell Show on Oprah's new network, OWN.