I like Leno better than Letterman but I tune in to watch both.
I mostly liked the bits after the monologue, like Headlines and JayWalking. I realize that Jaywalking is heavily edited for hilarity. Someone that knows the answers is not getting airtime.
I like Dave’s interviewing style better.
I don’t watch Conan much, and I don’t understand the Love for Craig Ferguson.
Not a chance. Fallon comes in at the top of his game, and with a big advantage over either Leno or Carson - his musical ability. Fallon does not hesitate to get on the stage and sing with any of his musical guests, and when he does it is not a farce, the results are damn good. (History of Rap, anyone?) He knows this, and I’d bet that one big motivation for moving the show to New York was to keep the Roots as the house band. This week they have been showing ‘the best of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ and the musical parts are great. I get a kick out of this one with Miley Cyrus.
The only downside to moving Fallon the the Tonight Show is losing Fallon at Late Night. The question isn’t if Fallon can replace Leno (he easily can), but if Seth Meyers can replace Fallon. I think he might be able to do it, though it make take a couple of years for him to find his stride. I wouldn’t be surprised to see ABC having a late show after Jimmy Kimmel if Meyers shows any weakness.
Welcome to the Dope, umama!
God bless you and Jay Leno always!!! 
bienville wins the thread.
I haven’t watched Leno’s show in over ten years. I just always found him terribly unfunny. And his interviews were awful. He constantly talks over his guests with incredibly lame “jokes.”
I will tune in for Fallon. I’ve watched his show more than any other talk show in recent years. Kimmel’s probably a close second.
I think Fallon will have a broader appeal and a better chance at success than Conan did. Heck, my 73 year old mom likes Jimmy Fallon, and she never cared much for Letterman or Conan.
Welcome to the Dope, umama, but you know, these attacks are not cool. It’s okay to make a point about the topic, but take the personal attacks to The Pit. That’s what that’s for.
And you posting that comment (username/post combo) is a close second.
This post was funnier than anything I’ve ever heard in one of Jay Leno’s monologues.
Leno, last night on his last show, said Carson is king. Indeed.
And if warnings were gold bars, then, I can’t think of a joke- anyway you’re banned.
Like him or not, Jay was successful because he was a company man and played to the middle America dumbed down demographic. I’ve heard his stand-up is edgier and smarter but you won’t see it on the tonight show because that’s not what sells the time slot.
If you remember back to Late Night w/ David Letterman his show was not unlike Jimmy Fallon’s. Sophmoric, frat boy humor. It was great stuff but it didn’t have the broad appeal needed for the prime time slot. Watching Dave go to his Late Show was like night and day. He had to give up what made him great to appeal to a wider audience.
It will be interesting to see how quickly Fallon will be forced to dumb down his show. For how successful and popular it is now, getting ratings in that prime time spot is a whole other animal.
I could see all the Leno fans migrate quickly over to Dave when they just don’t “get” Fallon’s humor.
There was no one else who could play the audience like a Stradivarius. “Louis… Rukeyser…”
But, y’know… I wasn’t even aware that the Tonight Show was still on. It’s all a blur of half-known names and shuffling shows and, well, deep tedium. i burned out on the late-night shows way back when I could watch them at 9 PM on satellite… they just weren’t funny when all brain cells were working.
Now he can go play with his cars, though, the lucky sunuva…
Especially if he keeps getting Justin Timberlake as a guest doing goofy skits and songs and whatnot.
Carson was indeed king, in his time. But the kingdom has shrunk. No longer is all of America watching the same show at night at the same time. No one can be as big a king again as long as the entertainment market is so fragmented and so varied.
Yes, that’s it…nostalgia for Johnny is all very well, but no one television performer will ever dominate the culture that way, again.
As for previous comments about whether or not America will ‘get’ Fallon’s humor: does he have any? I mean, he’s not a stand-up comic as such. (His monologues on the current show are that show’s weakest point.) Fallon is a sketch-comedy guy. He rises and falls on the strength of his writers, and on the quality of those doing the sketches with him.
His monologues may improve–the Tonight Show budget will be larger and more monologue-oriented expert writers may be hired with that extra cash.
I like his current writers and I like the Roots. But I find Fallon himself to be kind of smarmy and fake. (Granted, he has musical talent.) The appeal of both Letterman and of Leno has been that they are genuine: Letterman really is a curmudgeon, and Leno really is an eager-to-please performer. Neither is faking those qualities.
Fallon’s “sincere and humble” act, on the other hand, comes across to me as pure bad acting. Will he strike a large portion of the late-night audience that way, too? If so, he may not last long.
I will freely admit that I am far more excited about Seth Meyers taking over for Jimmy Fallon than I am about Jimmy Fallon taking over for Jay Leno.
Seth Meyers is legitimately funny, and I hope his show does well.
I thought Jay was funny in the 1980s!
I was bothered by the racial dynamic of the Tonight Show…Jay seemed to like having a troupe of black sidemen to laugh at his jokes, provide appropriate rim shots, and put up with cracks about smoking pot or sex jokes. I thought it verged on minstrelsy at times…and I am not uptight or politically correct with humor at all.