Here’s Jimmy! With Jay Leno’s “The Tonight Show” contract expiring next year, the question of his potential successor has been looming. Finally, NBC announced Jimmy Fallon, host of his own “Late Night” show, will replace Leno in spring 2014.
Many fans see this as a celebratory next step for Fallon to take, exposing him to the reins passed down by “King of Late Night” Johnny Carson. Others are critical of Fallon’s ability to make it work, noting NBC’s “The Tonight Show” conflict with Conan O’Brien. Columnists Tony Huang and Sebastian Torrelio make talk-show talk in this week’s “Love or Hate.”
I imagine Jimmy Fallon to have the sweatiest palms in entertainment. He just doesn’t ever seem comfortable, which isn’t a criticism – he just cares so, so much.
Look at that smile. That eager-to-please glow in his face. He’s the perennial overachiever, the hip and connected crowd pleaser, the genuinely nice guy on television – which makes him kind of boring unless you prick and prod a little.
The move to “The Tonight Show,” in that sense, is the gods of entertainment prodding with lightning: it’ll keep him on his toes and make him tap dance.
Because a larger audience means more responsibility, it means he has an even bigger burden, which means he has an even greater need to please, which, combined with his tendency to bend over backward for his viewers, will likely contort his body into a loop.
And let’s face it: Fallon is better when he’s forced to be spontaneous. His scripted stuff is good, but it’s only when he’s forced to loosen up that I really pay attention; his improv beats his acting any day. Look at Fallon’s movie career or even his cameo on “30 Rock” and you’ll see what happens when you cage him into a script.
So the challenge of a wholly different audience is exactly the discomfort I’d been wishing upon him – out of good will, I assure you.
I’m banking on this electrocharged crowd-pleaser Fallon to gobble up Jay Leno’s staid and stolid “The Tonight Show” and turn it into something fun and spontaneous. At worst, he still has the Roots to back him up.
But hey, even if it doesn’t go down as well as I think it will, at least I don’t have to choose between him and Craig Ferguson anymore. And he’ll free up a spot on “Late Night” – I’m gunning for Amy Poehler. Not every reason is noble.
Email Huang at [email protected] if you’re on the “love” side.
The fight for “The Tonight Show” is one of parallels. When David Letterman was considered the natural successor to Johnny Carson in 1992, NBC went for Jay Leno, creating a heartbroken rival in Letterman’s “Late Show.” When Conan O’Brien took over “The Tonight Show” and NBC forced the show to change to a post-midnight time slot in 2010, it created a controversy that greatly damaged its franchise. It’s hard not to see this circumstance as similar.
Jimmy Fallon is an immature comic, and that’s not a bad thing. Since “Saturday Night Live,” Fallon has shown his appeal to a younger audience, very different from the one that Leno brings in. Leno’s audience is one that enjoys his tame, predictable format, and won’t appreciate Fallon’s approach without a writing rehash. A man in his late 30s who makes ridiculous spoofs of current pop songs and previews video games on his show isn’t going to appeal as is to Leno’s crowd.
I’m afraid of NBC’s decision making. When Fallon started his show in 2009, he was shy, awkward and unsuited for the job. Since then, he has finally made strides as a high-ratings talk show host, only to be put in a competing time slot with similar-demographic seeker Jimmy Kimmel and New York-sharing, older audience-appealing David Letterman. Recent controversies, such as the tape delay broadcast of the Summer Olympics and firing of Ann Curry from “Today,” tell me that NBC doesn’t learn lessons well.
One of the funnier recent episodes of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” was in January with guest Bill Cosby. After a catchy, fun song introduction by the Roots while Cosby zip-zop-zoobity-bopped onto stage, he had this to say about the piece: “Something separates (those of us who are 50 and older) from you guys. In life. It’s the hearing. … When you get 50 and older, we don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Cosby understands what NBC doesn’t: Fallon won’t appeal to Leno’s crowd. Even in his old age, Bill Cosby is still a visionary.
Email Torrelio at [email protected] if you’re on the “hate” side.
