THE TONIGHT SHOW starring the new guy

Okay, so I’ve been sampling THE TONIGHT SHOW with Jimmy Fallon this week. And my verdict? It’s fine.

NBC’s strategic move to attract a younger audience will probably payoff to some degree. Watching the final Jay Leno show with Billy Crystal, who’s had as much work done as Joan Rivers, talking about old variety shows from the ‘60s, I could see why NBC made the switch. No one under 50 knew what they were talking about or cared. Compare that to Fallon’s premier where he and Will Smith did a medley of hip hop dances. Garth Brooks vs. U2 as musical guests. The times, they have a changed.

Was Fallon the right choice? My answer is: as opposed to who? He’s very sweet and likeable, which will be a nice contrast to Jimmy Kimmel, who I like but can come off smug, and Dave who has just become an old crank. And Fallon's very talented – he can sing, do impressions, dance, etc. Kimmel and Letterman can stand in place and sit.  Period.   So Fallon will have a leg up there. But for me, Jimmy Fallon lacks a certain presence, a gravitas. The host of THE TONIGHT SHOW used to be a commanding figure. Now it’s the shy nerd.

Fallon I’m sure will grow into the job. He’s come a long way since he started his latenight show. And a lot will depend on the quality of his writers. For the moment, when he does his monologue with his hands in his pockets he looks like Ed Sullivan. Has there ever been a stiffer human being in front of a camera than Ed Sullivan?

Of course, in time Jimmy Kimmel will improve too. Dave will just get worse. He’s already phoning it in and has been since the Bush Administration. 

Tom Shales, the one TV reviewer I hate more than any other, gave THE TONIGHT SHOW an unqualified rave based on the first night. Among the silly platitudes, he said that Fallon had risen to the pinnacle of television by being named host of THE TONIGHT SHOW.

Pinnacle of television? Really? Maybe thirty years ago when Johnny Carson owned latenight. When all the other competition combined was still just a fraction of his numbers. If Fallon beats Letterman by one point, NBC will be thrilled. Carson beat all comers by forty. Saying THE TONIGHT SHOW host is the pinnacle of television is like saying UCLA is the pinnacle of college basketball. Very few undergraduates of UCLA were even alive the last time they won the National Championship.

To me the bigger problem is this: the format itself is tired and musty. It’s another desk, and another backdrop of the city at night, and the couch, and the band, and the goofball announcer, and the monologue, and the celebrity guests just there to hawk their upcoming releases. The host wears a suit, the bandleader is a hipster, the interviews are tepid, and the second half of the show is almost all commercials.  Been there, done that... for sixty years.

Then you have Conan and Arsenio doing the same show with different desks on other channels. And THE DAILY SHOW and COLBERT REPORT, which is funnier and fresher than all of them.

Here’s my only real prediction: Jimmy Fallon will not host THE TONIGHT SHOW for the next twenty years. In twenty years there probably won’t be network television and NBC as we know it will exist as something else. THE VIEW will become the pinnacle of television.