Much has been written about "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon", but now that it has a full week under its belt I decided to chime in and add my 10th of cent opinion on the good, the bad, the blah and whatever else they decided to throw at the viewers this week. I'd only randomly caught Fallon's late late night show since, well, it came on so late. Yeah, I know I could have DVR'd it, but it just didn't seem like appointment television. Plus, since his demographic skews younger the show has been very social media savvy and most anything truly interesting has ended up on the web for all to see while sitting at your desk at work. Because much hullabaloo has been made about his taking over "The Tonight Show", I thought why not check it out and see what, if any, changes he'll make or if it will pretty much stay the same.
So far reviews have been mostly favorable as he's brought his young-ish man charms an hour earlier. The trick was always going to be how would he configure the show to keep the desired 18-34 year old audience he was bringing in without completely alienating the 50 to nearly dead crowd that Leno was bringing in. The answer seems to be by carrying over some skits from the other show while interviewing some standard (boring, uncontroversial, same old same old) guests all while maintaining that goofy, gosh I can't believe I'm here charm.
For me I'll say the week was a mixed bag funny, slight chuckle, not really funny, kind of boring to just let me fast forward through this part. High and lows for me included the following:
History of hip hop dance. Great outfits, rather funny, Will Smith was perfect for this. Though as a first guest, eh kind of blah.
The opening where stars came out and gave him the money for loosing the bet to host this show. Very funny, though like an SNL sketch it went on a bit too long.
Emma Thompson playing charades. I'm sorry but she should be a guest on every show. She came out like gangbusters and was the best thing about this. Who cares who else was playing it was EMMA THOMPSON cursing!!
The barber shop quartet doing R. Kelly remixes. The Brian Williams "Rappers Delight" remix. History of Rap 5. Not too long not too short they were viral video ready and all on YouTube, worth checking out. However, #Hashtag 2--too long, too irritating. I'm with Questlove when he said "Seriously, shut the f**k up."
Will Ferrell was kind of funny, in general he's hit or miss with me. Their "Ew!" sketch was all that funny, except when he made out with the Harry Styles poster. Mrs. Obama had some funny stories, though when she started talking healthcare I kind of zoned out, probably like most of America. Kristen Wiig as Harry Styles, not sure I got it and not sure it was all that funny. Maybe if she'd been able to do an English accent? Then again, maybe not.
Kid inventors I liked if just for that very smart girl and her body heat powered flashlight. It was a brilliant idea and WHY ISN'T IT ON THE MARKET OR IN PRODUCTION YET? This young girl deserves financial backing hopefully someone who saw it will encourage her.
Musical guests were a mixed bag--U2, Tim McGraw, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire and Justin Timberlake. All pretty tame, even Ms Gaga. My only critique would be "ArtPop" is not the best song on the album.
Speaking of Timberlake, he seems to be Fallon's go to guest. They are like two slightly drunk frat boys that break out into giggles whenever you say words with innuendos. Heh, heh--you said weiner! From a general outside view, it does look like they are genuinely having fun together though occasionally it seems there is some inside joke going between them that we are all missing out on. Of course with all the rumors out there about Timberlake getting additional hair (you can Google this also) I found myself oddly staring at his hairline which is distinctly different these days. I was almost mesmerized by it. Still he seemed to be a good guest to cap off what in general terms was a decent first week.
Ratings for the first week of shows have been pretty good, though whether this remains at it's current loft perch remains to be seen in the coming weeks. There will be no Olympics lead ins and the other late night shows will regain their viewers and traction as "The Tonight Show" settles into a more regular nightly routine. Several things Fallon has going for him that Conan didn't is he seems to be more in tune with social media and getting views by going viral. Though Jimmy Kimmel has proven himself to be adept at that also as seen by his latest Olympics wolf video. And for some reason you get the feeling Fallon and his personality are liked by more people and his humor isn't quite as quirky or obtuse as Conan's, helping him to possibly hang onto some of Leno's (sometimes easily offended) audience. Because of this I'm quite sure Fallon won't disappear off the NBC late night scene after a year as Conan did. The audience and numbers will come down but still be decent enough for NBC to actually stick with the guy. I mean Letterman isn't getting any younger and they aren't bringing "Nightline" back so the field for the moment will be wide open with a vast audience for the taking. For now we'll just wait and see what week 2 brings and how often he'll have to go to the Timberlake well.
So far reviews have been mostly favorable as he's brought his young-ish man charms an hour earlier. The trick was always going to be how would he configure the show to keep the desired 18-34 year old audience he was bringing in without completely alienating the 50 to nearly dead crowd that Leno was bringing in. The answer seems to be by carrying over some skits from the other show while interviewing some standard (boring, uncontroversial, same old same old) guests all while maintaining that goofy, gosh I can't believe I'm here charm.
For me I'll say the week was a mixed bag funny, slight chuckle, not really funny, kind of boring to just let me fast forward through this part. High and lows for me included the following:
History of hip hop dance. Great outfits, rather funny, Will Smith was perfect for this. Though as a first guest, eh kind of blah.
The opening where stars came out and gave him the money for loosing the bet to host this show. Very funny, though like an SNL sketch it went on a bit too long.
Emma Thompson playing charades. I'm sorry but she should be a guest on every show. She came out like gangbusters and was the best thing about this. Who cares who else was playing it was EMMA THOMPSON cursing!!
The barber shop quartet doing R. Kelly remixes. The Brian Williams "Rappers Delight" remix. History of Rap 5. Not too long not too short they were viral video ready and all on YouTube, worth checking out. However, #Hashtag 2--too long, too irritating. I'm with Questlove when he said "Seriously, shut the f**k up."
Will Ferrell was kind of funny, in general he's hit or miss with me. Their "Ew!" sketch was all that funny, except when he made out with the Harry Styles poster. Mrs. Obama had some funny stories, though when she started talking healthcare I kind of zoned out, probably like most of America. Kristen Wiig as Harry Styles, not sure I got it and not sure it was all that funny. Maybe if she'd been able to do an English accent? Then again, maybe not.
Kid inventors I liked if just for that very smart girl and her body heat powered flashlight. It was a brilliant idea and WHY ISN'T IT ON THE MARKET OR IN PRODUCTION YET? This young girl deserves financial backing hopefully someone who saw it will encourage her.
Musical guests were a mixed bag--U2, Tim McGraw, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire and Justin Timberlake. All pretty tame, even Ms Gaga. My only critique would be "ArtPop" is not the best song on the album.
Speaking of Timberlake, he seems to be Fallon's go to guest. They are like two slightly drunk frat boys that break out into giggles whenever you say words with innuendos. Heh, heh--you said weiner! From a general outside view, it does look like they are genuinely having fun together though occasionally it seems there is some inside joke going between them that we are all missing out on. Of course with all the rumors out there about Timberlake getting additional hair (you can Google this also) I found myself oddly staring at his hairline which is distinctly different these days. I was almost mesmerized by it. Still he seemed to be a good guest to cap off what in general terms was a decent first week.
Ratings for the first week of shows have been pretty good, though whether this remains at it's current loft perch remains to be seen in the coming weeks. There will be no Olympics lead ins and the other late night shows will regain their viewers and traction as "The Tonight Show" settles into a more regular nightly routine. Several things Fallon has going for him that Conan didn't is he seems to be more in tune with social media and getting views by going viral. Though Jimmy Kimmel has proven himself to be adept at that also as seen by his latest Olympics wolf video. And for some reason you get the feeling Fallon and his personality are liked by more people and his humor isn't quite as quirky or obtuse as Conan's, helping him to possibly hang onto some of Leno's (sometimes easily offended) audience. Because of this I'm quite sure Fallon won't disappear off the NBC late night scene after a year as Conan did. The audience and numbers will come down but still be decent enough for NBC to actually stick with the guy. I mean Letterman isn't getting any younger and they aren't bringing "Nightline" back so the field for the moment will be wide open with a vast audience for the taking. For now we'll just wait and see what week 2 brings and how often he'll have to go to the Timberlake well.
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