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He looked like a deer caught in headlights during his first Late Night show. But it was a far better start than Conan O’Brien (who broke out in nerves-induced acne). But NBC once again is too lame to figure out how to freshen this stale formula.
UPDATE: Jimmy Fallon delivered some decent ratings, including the best Monday numbers in the timeslot in more than 3 years by averaging a 2.3 rating/8 share in Nielsen’s metered-market overnights. This was a 35% improvement over Monday’s Late Night average this season. Not surprisingly, Fallon’s debut also rated higher than the premieres of other network late night programs since he’s far better known than, say, Craig Ferguson or Jimmy Kimmel.
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If he’s an America-hating jerk, then he will fail. Quickly.
Fail!!! watch ferguson instead, ferguson is win
He was just nervous and this is totally new, but give him time and he’ll be fine, I think.
Looks like I’ll be able to catch up on my sleep. Snorefest of a debut. How long before he recycles everything he did on SNL? Hmm, imitated DeNiro on SNL, so let’s book him, oh and that BeeGees skit with Timberlake, that worked on SNL, let’s book him. Who’s idea was this and more importantly, why?
I was surprised at how stale the ideas were, how much “borrowing” was going on – the “Lick it for Ten” seemed like something Letterman would do, “Slow Jam the News” seemed Conan-esque, that fake movie trailer was right out of Kimmel and the constant “this is true” during the monologue, well, they all do that…
Maybe Fallon’s just playing it safe while he figures what he can get away with.
The difference is that Conan had shown some talent as a writer for Saturday Night Live and the Simpsons. What has Fallon given us? Fever Pitch? Taxi? Laughing through SNL skits? He didn’t even write any of them
To be able to be a good talk show host it helps to be a writer, and Fallon, unfortunately, is not.
The dude was heckled on his own show.
Unlike his predecessors, Fallon doesn’t have the requisite intellectual wit needed to carry the show.
I haven’t seen Fallon yet. But, in defense of Conan: I have the tapes of Conan’s audition show and his first few weeks of shows, and they’re great.
I think Letterman fans who hated Conan for not being Letterman created the “deer caught in the headlights” myth to justify why they didn’t like Conan back in the early years.
Conan is the anchovy of talk show hosts. Some people are never going to like him, just as some people are never going to like anchovies. But most people who enjoy watching Conan today probably would love the tapes of the early shows.
Conan’s first show was great. And that’s not hindsight talking – that’s how I felt at the time. Sure he was nervous, but they tried some really interesting bits that set an intelligently wacky tone. Also, he had the advantage of having his first show air two weeks after Chevy Chase launched a stinkbomb into late night.
It’s far too soon to judge Fallon’s effort, but if the level of humour is on the level of asking audience members to lick lawnmowers, I may want to rethink my late night options.
Congratulations, Jimmy! I thought your first show was very funny, very you. You and DeNiro were hilarious. I think that was the most colorful interview I’ve ever seen him give. You’re off to a great start! Look forward to seeing it in NYC! GH
FAIL!!!
Fallon’s gonna be just fine. A way better Jimmy choice than Kimmel. And Enrique, Kimmel stole his entire comedy arsenal from Not Necessarily the News and Talk Soup. Zero original thought anymore in late night, but Kimmel is by far the worst offender because he doesn’t tell any jokes – just comments on existing clips. That hack needs to be canceled 4 years ago and will be soon.
F’r'Chrissake, let the kid fly under the RADAR for a little while before shooting at him! It takes weeks to shake down a chat show. America needs a guileless-appearing host to help us weather the storm. Oh, and TJ has no genitals.
Who debut is ever spectacular? Come on. At least give him six months.
It was the equivalent of Kimmel coming out and doing Man Show bits! C’mon Fallon- you came out and did the 2 things we knew you could do- De Niro and TImberlake!…Whats on tonight’s show? Oh I know, Fallon plays guitar and does bad Sandler imitations while Will Ferrell makes him Giggle in the corner of the room. Watch Jimmy Kimmel instead- at least its more of an original show.
It had moments of awful, moments of not bad, and even three moments of good and funny.
The awful was that Space Train bit with DeNiro and the licking thing. Yuck. And most of the DeNiro interview actually as Jimmy had to do most of the talking and it wasn’t very intriguing. Oh, and the target demographic blonde mother’s thing was bad too.
The not bad was the monologue, and Van Morrisson.
And the good and funny was the cold open with Conan, the slow jamz bit with the Roots guys, and the JT interview (where JT was the funny part, granted.)
Not a terrible start but you’d think the non-interview parts would be stronger as they’ve had time to work on them. Ideally, they’d carry the show while Jimmy got better. Doesn’t bode well.
Come on people, he was terrible. He has no business having a talk show– he can’t talk. he should have a Mumble Show. He was better in movies.
PS Even with DeNiro, Van Morrison and Justin Timberlake and a half-hour earlier, he STILL lost to Kimmel, 2.5 to 2.3
I tuned in last night and Fallon’s debut was BORING beyond belief. I flipped to Craig Ferguson to keep myself awake and checked back every few minutes to see what Fallon was up to.
His audience’s heckling during the monologue, the cringe-inducing “Lick it for ten” bit that I assume was supposed to be funny, Robert De Niro’s ‘I wish I was anywhere else’ interview & finally the great De Niro being pushed off to the side to make way for Justin Timberlake.
At that point I gave up and stuck with Ferguson for the rest of the night… anytime Paris Hilton is the lesser of two evils, you may have a problem.
Hokey smokes he sucks!
Gone before the end of the summer.
Kimmel only beat him because of The Bachelor finale on ABC. Kimmel’s been averaging a 1.4 for months. Look it up. And look at the ratings tomorrow morning. I’ll eat my dog’s collar if Kimmel beats him again. Kimmel is awful and criminally unoriginal (re: Not Necessarily the News, Talk Soup), 6 full years into his show. Give Fallon a shot before you crucify him. He’s infinitely more entertaining and has much more range than Korpse Kimmel.
A little perspective…O”Brien started in stand up in LA, got hired on The Simpsons, then was thrust into a whole new realm of performance with a late night talk show. Understandably, it took some time for him to find his groove. But he did, and then some.
Fallon has had years of experience doing SNL in all its permutations, plus been in movies, lots of talk show appearances, etc. And STILL HE STANK! Lorne Michaels must have twisted De Niro’s arm big time to get him to be in such a suck-ass sketch.
Forecast: A world of pain, but of course it will stay on longer than it should due to Michaels’ clout at NBC.
I realize he’s taking over an existing show so it’s not technically “yet another” chat show – but my god… YET ANOTHER CHAT SHOW?
Monologue/bit/celeb plug/celeb plug/middling band.
We get it.
First did you see the flop sweat during the DeNiro interview? It was right out of “Broadcast News”. But hey, Fallon is funny. He will settle in. The band is awesome. I’ll hang in there.
I’m failing to grasp this Kimmel hatred. Kimmel has grown over the years and developed into a unique talk-show with many different recurring characters that you would never see on any other late night show. He’s really come into his own and it’s only a matter of time before he is in the earlier time slot on ABC and starts to give Conan and Letterman a run for their money.
It’s difficult to start something completely new and gain traction. People can’t say they’ve been tuning into ABC for Late Night television for decades, but he’s well on his way.