Fallon's opener almost sounded like recycled Conan material, almost delivered in the same style Conan does too. As everyone else said, slow jammin the news def has potential.

I would give the first episode a grade of C- on the strength of the guest and house band.

The skits and monologue were weak, as well as his interviewing skills. Fallon has to learn to listen and not talk over his guests. DeNiro looked like he was forced to be there... like someone called in a favor. Justin Timberlake was HILARIOUS as usual. I didn't see Van Morrison.

I don't know how long I can watch this show. The Roots is my favorite band so I'll give it a chance to see them.

jimmyfallon (via twitter): I read some reviews. They were fair. I appreciate your comments as well.

Timberlake can save anything. The man is hysterical.. I was hoping for him to pop up since he and Fallon are such good friends.

I still didn't watch the show last night. I'm afraid to.

I turned it off after 10 minutes. It was bad. Not Chevy Chase bad(nothing will ever top that debacle), but pretty painful to sit through.

That being said, Conan got off to a shaky start too. Within 2-3 years, he was kicking everyone's ass. But the difference is Conan was an unknown. Sure, he'd been a comedy writer for years, but we didn't really know what he was capable of. Fallon is a known commodity and I've never been impressed with the guy. He could never keep a straight face during his SNL skits and he was a mediocre Weekend Update anchor.

I think this show will improve, but there's a much lower ceiling for how good it can be compared to Conan. Or even Kimmel, Kilborn, or Ferguson for that matter.

I watched a little bit of the show last night. I saw the monologue up to the first commercial break. This was god awful. The only saving grace was teh Slow Jamming the News segment.

I remember when there was a lot of "buzz" about Dana Carvey getting a late night gig (I guess he eventually did in make believe land!) I had the very same thought.

Didn;t he have a short late night stint?

Anyone remember Carolla's late night show? Talk about a stinker..

Exactly. This is my issue. It's not like I'm not used to the guy stumbling all over himself for years on SNL, so I don't have high hopes. The interviews were a train wreck, even the Timberlake one was essentially boiled down to a version of the Chris Farley Show.

"Hey. Re-remember that one time on SNL and we like pretended to be the Bee Gees? That.....that was awesome."

What about the blonde mothers sketch ?

Letterman humor only appeals to people over 60.

I only watch if there is a good guest.


Conan had an advantage in his early years where he did not have the constant scrutiny of the internet and other media outlets to critique all of his shows so he had time to develop his craft.

Carson Daly is mediocre and he has been doing his talk show for about 7 years now!

I doubt they would give Fallon the early hook.

Tina Fey is on tonight so I will watch that.

Monologue was mercifully short tonight.

Bloomberg + Castle Greyskull made me smile for some reason. I also looked up the Sharp 108, so I guess sometimes plugging crap on the air really has an effect.

Much better this week. Monologue still needs work though.

Did I seriously just watch that? Who the fuck are the writers on this show? That watching a youtube video skit was even worse than Space Train!

Man, I almost feel bad for Jimmy. That IVOD segment was beyond bad and the audience was dead for it, looked like he was going to breakdown.

I felt embarrassed for the singing girl and changed the channel for most of her solo effort. The film with the chair is probably the first bit on the show that was executed fairly well, until Fallon had to interact with it on stage. Hope his nerves subside soon.

Are you guys thinking about his short-lived primetime variety show, The Dana Carvey Show?

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0115148/
http://www.hulu.com/search/The+Dana+...e&type=episode

There was that, but I distinctly remember Carvey being the first pick to take over for Letterman at Late Night. I believe he turn it down and they went with Conan.

Never in a million years did I ever think that I'd ever hear someone say that, ever.

Cause my grandma LOVES gum humor...

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No internet, but you better believe there was intense media attention when his show debuted. There was all kinds of "who the hell is this guy and how dare he be given his own show!" sentiment out there. Luckily he debuted one week after The Chevy Chase Show, which we were all tearing to shreds, so even his shaky early shows looked genius in comparison.

If Fallons show was in L.A. the crowd would be more receptive.

New York is a tough crowd and it is hard to make them laugh.

I remember funny sketches and jokes from SNL and Conan that did not get a laugh from the crowd.

Funny you should say that because I also thing Fallon's show is better suited for LA. He said he wants to be the "Red Bull of talk shows" and LA is the perfect place for it. Cason Daly's set is about the same size if not bigger than Fallon's so he could just take over that. Conan should stay on the east coast his humor fits in better here.

It was hard to watch the interview with Tina Fey because Fallon was laughing like a schoolgirl throughout the whole thing. It seems like he is going down the same road as he did on SNL, which is where he entertains himself up more than the audience.

I would watch that every single night. I love Joel McHale.

Timberlake was great in the first show, just because he's so versatile. But that wasn't an interview. It was just impressions - and if you have never seen the Barry Gibb Talk Show sketch, you'd have been lost, as that's all they talked about for the first 5 minutes.

I noticed that too. I think he may be in trouble when he runs out of friends to bring onto the show.

I did like the opener of the first episode, with Conan. How he said next week's main guest would be Gervais from Survivor Season 1.

From what I've heard (from east coast comedians) they find LA harder to work because they're more sensitive there (any kind of violent, sexual, or both kinds of jokes do not go over). You'll notice most of them do their stand up tv specials on the east.

But as far as a late night show, LA seems to be a better venue.