A Victory for Kanye West

The crashing, clashing, and possible collaborating of two big egos drew a lot of eager eyes in the lead-up to the appearance of Kanye West on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday night. The "feud" was triggered by radio, was fed by late night, spun around wildly on twitter, and then settled back down for a chat. And, finally, Kimmel's interview with West hit in the ratings. Pretty damn well, besides.

Say what you will about West — braggart, bravado, etc — he is an intelligent, talented man. Jimmy Kimmel, too, and his show's top producers, are also intelligent people. Which is why they probably realized the ratings jackpot they were hitting by putting two purportedly fighting people in a room together. What could happen? Would there be yelling? Would things get crazy?

People tend to underestimate West, though, and so the interview itself was, as our own Dale Neuringer described, "refreshing, honest, and insightful." And, as it turns, out, a lot of people saw it. Like a lot. It beat Jay Leno and David Letterman, and landed Kimmel the best demo ratings the show's gotten all season.

This was a win-win scenario for both of the men. This could have easily been just the world laughing at Kanye West again. And, really, some still are, but, hey, the attention is still turned towards West, right?

Come for the celebrity catfight, stay for the surprisingly nuanced insight into the creative-minded? And then stay a little longer to continue wondering whether or not this feud was real in the first place.