It’s out with the old and in with the younger late Monday night as Jimmy Fallon (39) replaces Jay Leno (63) on The Tonight Show.
After 22 years behind the desk, Leno bade farewell to NBC’s late-night institution Feb.
- It was an orderly passing of the baton, unlike the debacle in 2009 when NBC pushed Leno out and plopped Conan O’Brien in as host.
This time around, NBC has also changed venues and tweaked the title.
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno has become The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and moved back to New York from Los Angeles.
Is there some significance to “with” becoming “starring”?
My guess is it’s an attempt to showcase Fallon instead of just having him be the next guy to fill in after Leno.
It’s also old school. “Starring” was what the show used back in the day: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962-1992).
Steve Allen and Jack Paar had “starring” in the title as well.
Leno and O’Brien had “with.”
Fallon’s first week will begin a bit later each evening. To take advantage of the huge Winter Olympics audience, Fallon will debut at 11 p.m. Monday after the break for local news. The show will revert to its regular time of 10:35 p.m. Feb. 24.
The show’s move back to New York plants it in renovated Studio 6B (Carson’s old studio) in Rockefeller Center. The makeover increases the seating capacity from 189 to 240.
NBC Entertainment President Robert Greenblatt says he hopes Leno will be available for network specials. He added, “We’ve got ideas about other sorts of shows he can host.”
Sincere or disingenuous? Time will tell.
Leno says he’s finished with late-night TV - going out on top. His threat to go to another network in 2009 is what caused NBC to offer him the weeknight prime-time gig that failed abysmally.
With Fallon, The Tonight Show hopes to skew younger immediately. Carson was three weeks shy of 37 when he took over The Tonight Show in 1962.Leno was 42 when he replaced the retiring Carson.
Fallon is the youngest network late-night host on the air. For comparison, the other late night shows and their hosts’ ages are:
NBC, Late Night With Seth Meyers (40).
NBC, Last Call With Carson Daly (40).
CBS, Late Show With David Letterman (66).
CBS, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (51).
ABC, Jimmy Kimmel Live! (46).
Comedy Central, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (51).
Comedy Central, The Colbert Report (49).
TBS, Conan (50).
In addition, Fallon may be the most versatile. He’s not only a talented sketch artist and ebullient host, but an accomplished musician and actor as well.
Most viewers came to know James Thomas Fallon Jr. when he was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, 1998-2004.
Not as many may recall his early film career. He had a few lines in 2000’s Almost Famous, then starred alongside Queen Latifah in 2004’s Taxi, and in the Farrelly brothers’ 2005 romantic comedy Fever Pitch with Drew Barrymore.
There was also 2008’s The Year of Getting to Know Us with Lucy Liu and Sharon Stone, and his role as “Hot Tub” Johnny Rocket in 2009’s Whip It.
The Brooklyn native was born Sept. 19, 1974, and grew up a fan of SNL, re-enacting sketches with his older sister.
In his teens in Saugerties, N.Y., Fallon impressed friends and family with impersonations and started playing guitar at age 13.
Fallon graduated from Saugerties High School in 1992 and attended The College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y.
He began as a computer science major, but switched to communications in his senior year, dropping out 15 credits shy of a degree. He fulfilled the degree requirements in 2009 and proudly displayed his diploma on SNL. Fallon has earned a couple of Emmys since 2010, and a Grammy for Best Comedy Album (Blow Your Pants Off) in 2012. The recording featured appearances by Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, Dave Matthews and Eddie Vedder.
Fallon’s Tonight Show will certainly be a more high-energy affair, but it will also carry on the tradition of an opening monologue. That will lead to Fallon’s many familiar segments, celebrity sketches and musical parodies made popular on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. These will include #Hashtags, Thank You Notes, and Slow Jam the News.
In one memorable Slow Jam the News segment from April 2012, Fallon and his house band, The Roots, slow jammed with President Barack Obama. That was a first.
Fortunately, the Grammy-winning and exceedingly hip Roots will move over to The Tonight Show with Fallon. SNL’s Lorne Michaels will also take over as executive producer.
Actor Will Smith and the band U2 are scheduled to be Fallon’s first guests Monday.
And finally, Feb. 24 is also the same night that Saturday Night Live alumnus Seth Meyers takes over Fallon’s old seat. Late Night With Seth Meyers debuts at 11:35 p.m.
TV Week, Pages 83 on 02/16/2014