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David Letterman hasn’t said anything yet about the latest rumors of the departure of his longtime rival Jay Leno from The Tonight Show and his likely replacement Jimmy Fallon. But the other late-night host, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview to run today that he thinks the Fallon move “makes perfect sense.” “NBC is looking to move on, because they did it once already. This would be the second time that this has happened,” Kimmel told Tapper. Kimmel, who’s been critical of Leno in the not so distant past, joked that he hoped the supposed moves are a result of him shifting to the 11:35 PM slot earlier this year. But he might be looking forward to facing Fallon for serious reasons: While debuting strong in its new slot January 8, Jimmy Kimmel Live hasn’t been able to overcome Leno in total viewership and only beat him on a few occasions in the key adults 18-49 demo. On average over his first 10 weeks in his new slot, Kimmel has been 81,000 18-49 viewers behind Leno while besting Letterman by 65,000 in the demo. Here’s Kimmel on CNN:
Related: Fallon Jokes About ‘Tonight Show’ Move While Leno Takes Another Jab At NBC
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Let me try out for the Tonight Show! I can do better than both of them! Seriously…
I guess Jimmy would rather face anyone but Leno in that timeslot•••makes sense. One thing I’m still thinking about is that thing about possibly moving The Tonight Show to NY. If the goal is to completely destroy The Tonight Show-I believe that would pretty much do it. A very stupid idea.
Who cares where a show is recorded?
Leno’s track record speaks for itself. He’s the sword in the velvet glove.
Jimmy Kimmel sees himself in Leno, that’s why he hates him. Kimmel is making himself bland enough to appeal to the widest possible audience, and he is hating it.
Just as Conan found out the hard way, going for mass market appeal isn’t as easy as it looks.
Good comment, I like the way you put that, clear, insightful & concise.
Maybe the reason Conan didn’t do so well with The Tonight Show was because NBC put too many restrictions on what Conan could do. I’ve been a fan of Conan’s for 20 years and a watered down Conan show just didn’t have the same sting. His TBS show is a lot like his old NBC show – actually it’s even more irreverent, which is what his loyal fans want.
Little late on noticing bland. Kimmel is the mediocre elite. Not funny. Not a good interviewer. Not good looking. The joke is him. And you morons who watch.
Thanks Sarah Silverman
*moving The Tonight Show back to NY*-sorry
Gee I remember when Johnny Carson retired from Late Night and that transition was well done, civil, sentimental and adult. The times have really changed NBC makes war on Leno for tellng jokes about NBC ratings? Those executives at NBC are pretty thin skinned.
This is sarcasm, correct?
They’re all acting like a bunch of vulchers. When Leno is gone Letterman will be the next to be attacked, the “who’ll replace Letterman” talk will begin 30 seconds atfer Fallon takes the helm at “Tonight”.
Not only should NBC take The Tonight Show to NYC, it should make it truly live.
I’m sure that would never happen, given the gutless nature of most executives, but that would really differentiate the show and make it a true live wire anything-could-happen kind of show.
I really miss Uncle Frank though… he was a great addition to the show and I was sad when he passed.
But that “sandbagging” of Leno was where the worm turned. I’m no Leno fan, but that was low and it wasn’t even funny, and ever since then he’s been riding this Leno thing into the ground.
Kimmell mentioned that “they already did it once” and that is correct. I doubt when Leno came back to the Tonight Show in 2010 that NBC thought “Geez, we dogded a bullett and do not have to think about this anymore.” I bet NBC went immediately into “now we need to start again” with a Leno replacement. Also grumblings about Fallon taking over the tonight show have been going on for a while. It’s only the lame-stream-media that is linking these rumors to Kimmell moving to 11:35. I think the Fallon/Leno plan has been in place for many months, if not a few years.
Why is Jimmy Kimmel involved? Why is Jimmy Kimmel pushing Leno around? Does he need publicity so badly?
Kimmel is jumping on the underdog. Kimmel is a bully. He should have class and keep his mouth shut like all the other late night hosts. Even Fallon isn’t talking. Letterman might make a joke about it, but Letterman is not going on CNN to bash Leno. Shame on you, Kimmel. Don’t worry Leno, it gets better.
Leno is such a coward he deserves to be mocked at every possible opportunity. Jay could have gone to ABC in 2009 and he’d have been welcomed there they wanted him to replace Nightline but Jay was afraid to leave NBC so he hung around like a guy who graduates high school but keeps going back to the high school afraid to move on to college. That’s Jay. He deserves to be forced out and if he had been smart he’d have said in 2009 “I’m going to ABC and it will be a three man three network race. Me against Conan and Dave and may the best man win.” That’s what a real man would have done but nope not Jay he took the coward’s route and now he’s paying the price.