astrochimp

Yeah, that was good. I liked the charades with Cooper, McGraw and Emma Thompson also.

TheKing

I cracked up at the Brian Willams/Lester Holt rendition of Rapper's Delight.

RichC2

Yeah, they did a great job on that mash-up, had to take a while to pull that one off. The last one was pretty good too.

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OldBoy

anyone else think he is playing it safe right now and feels a little uncomfortable right now and will start to do more of his skits as time goes on and get into the groove? i mean he isn't in danger of anything right?

RichC2

He just doesn't want to alienate his new audience members. These will be the highest rated shows of his career (thanks in part to being a new host and the Olympics) so he'll probably play it safe until Sochi is over and done with

devilshalo

I guess it's more interesting to see what his ratings are a few weeks down the line when the dust settles.

RichC2

I'm almost surprised there was no outrage over him fake smoking a joint to describe Cool Runnings (it's the obvious thing to do). Cuz EVERYTHING seems to bring upon outrage these days

astrochimp

That was pretty cool of Michelle Obama to do that skit

Rypro 525

well ow we know Fallon can switch on his serious side.

astrochimp

Fallon and JT rap

TomOpus

JT should've been his very first guest instead of Will Smith. Probably a schedule conflict but still...

duff beer

well whatever he is he's MILES better than those SHIT FESTERING last two guys!

JTH182

Missed the first half hour tonight because all week he's been starting @ 11! grrrrrr!

TheKing

Yeah, but she completely crapped on the whole thing when she pulled out the extremely pretentious "My kids don't watch TV" while herself appearing on a TV Show.

mcnabb

Whether they are republicans or democrats, I hate when politicans come on late night shows. I have a problem that the first week of Fallon and then Meyers are using the First Lady in a skit, and then Biden will be the first guest on Meyers show on Monday. Again, I just hate that late night comedy and politicans have crossed over as late night is the one time I want to get away from seeing a politicans face.

I'm probably in the minority as people eat this shit up, but this tells me we will be seeing more and more of these phony politicans trying to get air-time on late night shows to boost their approval ratings.

PhantomStranger

I think it's a temporary phenomenon. The Obama administration has very close ties to NBC's executives. It's as much a favor to the network as anything else.

Rypro 525

Looks like ratings were very solid all week. yes they had the Olympics, but people seemingly decided to give him a shot. averaged over 8 million viewers

Count Dooku

It's not even a little bit pretentious if it is true.

PhantomStranger

He had the Olympics as a lead-in and The Tonight Show is still a powerful brand for many people. The telling ratings will be a year from now. NBC has fully committed to him as their guy, the ratings will have to be terrible for them to go in a different direction.

Throwing Copper

Still don't think it was a good idea hiring Fallon for the Tonight Show or moving the show to New York.

I guess they're just going to let Jimmy Kimmel get all the good guests out in LA now.

With all that being said, I thought it was a good first week. The skits were enjoyable and although I normally hate when they play a game with the guest, the charades was pretty funny.

Mr. Salty

It's New York, not Omaha. Plenty of celebrities go to New York when they're on publicity tours. "The Tonight Show" isn't going to be lacking for good guests.

Coladar1

True enough, but as I brought up elsewhen, there's the added reality of no fewer than three of the four major 11pm talkers originating in NYC. Given the celebs these shows book do work and live primarily on the west coast, it is going to prove problematic. Daily, Late and Tonight shows on one side, Kimmel on the other - plus Meyers and Colbert. So five New Yorkers vying for guests five nights a week, broken down:

2 Guests, 1 Performer for Fallon, Letterman, Meyers.
1 Guest for Stewart and Colbert.

8 celebrities need to be in New York every single night, as well as three performers, usually musicians.

So 40 celebrities a week... in New York City. I just don't see how that's workable. True, we're only adding Fallon to the mix, but it's a show which adds numerous kinks - the two major, established late night brands that draw the A-listers and go head to head now must compete for guests whereas before they both drew from totally separate pools. Since Late Show was only created in 92, this has never happened previously to know whether or not it can work.

But most problematic of all is NBC requiring its two late nighters to compete for guests in New York. There's good reason why CBS split its late night properties between coasts, what with media conglomerates seeking to promote their stable of stars in film, television and music over others much of the time - why Letterman has Mark Harmon or Jim Parsons, or stars of Showtime series, and so on.

Can it work? Well, it almost has to (or else...), but long term I don't see how it will. We'll just have to see how it pans out, and exactly what's going on in six months time.

AaronHernandez

The 40 number is inflated because half the guests on Colbert/Stewart are political people and policy makers who likely would never appear on the network late night shows.

TomOpus

Guests don't have to be celebrities. There are sports personalities, politicians, big-name musicians can be both guest and musician like Timberlake. They can have stand-up comedians fill up a spot if need be. There are regular people that's in the news with a feel-good story. As a last resort, bring on some animals.

A good host will make it a good show, no matter who the guest.

JuryDuty

Personally, I'm really enjoying Fallon. I've yet to see how well he does in interviews, but I LOVE that he brings on the variety. He can sing, he dances, he does game show bits, he does skits--Leno, Letterman, and Fallon pretty much don't touch that stuff, and Ferguson only once in a while (though he's probably a better interviewer).

I also like that Fallon isn't sarcastic or too crass. I get enough of that with Stewart, Letterman and Ferguson. It's nice to have a "nice guy" who's hilarious and can do a wide variety of things.