For months if has been rumored that Jimmy Fallon would be taking over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno and today NBC announced it will be happening next Spring.
Jay Leno, who hosted the show for 22 years said “Congratulations Jimmy. I hope you’re as lucky as me and hold on to the job until you’re the old guy. If you need me, I’ll be at the garage.â€
And Fallon, who will be moving the show back to 30 Rock, had this to say about his quick promotion, “I’m really excited to host a show that starts today instead of tomorrow.â€
NBC justified their stupid decision by saying, “We are purposefully making this change when Jay is #1, just as Jay replaced Johnny Carson when he was #1. Jimmy Fallon is a unique talent and this is his time. I’m thrilled he will become the sixth host of ‘The Tonight Show’ at exactly the right moment, in conjunction with our coverage of next year’s Winter Olympic Games from Sochi, Russia.”
Well got to hand it to NBC, who is sinking faster than the Titanic, they are really out to destroy the network. I mean how and why do you get rid of the only thing that you have that is #1. Today lost that title to Good Morning America within the last year. Their primetime is behind CBS, ABC, Fox and Univision in the ratings. So the only thing they had going for them was their late night block. Well not anymore.
I just think that Fallon isn’t ready for the job. When he takes over The Tonight Show, he will not even have been hosting Late Night for 5 years. While he is great with his musical numbers and his games with the guests, he still needs to work on the rest of his show. I think his monologue isn’t fluid enough and his interviews are more about him than the guests. Plus he kisses their a$$es so much, it is hard to watch. That is why you never see any of his interviews getting international attention like the other hosts because there is nothing to them. He really needs to work on that before he takes over the primo late night show. Either that or just have him do skits and games with the guests instead of interviewing them.
Plus his other problem is because he is keeping the show in NYC, he will be competing with David Letterman for the big guests. Since his ratings will plummet (see Conan O’Brien’s when he took over The Tonight Show who is better off at TBS), The Late Show will be getting the big names first.
Now when it comes to the ratings, I honestly predict that The Tonight Show will fall to third place behind Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show. I think that JKL scared NBC so much that they got rid of Leno and because of that it will make Kimmel’s show #1. I think the Leno deserters will be tuning to Kimmel because they haven’t been tuning into Fallon in all of this time. I think they will be discovering Kimmel over the next year and they are going to stay with him. I am not saying that because I am fan, I just think he will be more what they are looking for.
So what about the rumors that Seth Meyers is slated to get Late Night? I think that is a f*cking ridiculous choice. Who is he? He has never become a name. NBC needs to get a name in that job and someone who can do a talk show. Meyers has no experience and his inexperience might be the push in the ratings that Craig Ferguson needs to be #1 at 12:35a.
Finally I still don’t think this change is going to happen. Even though NBC announced it, I think that Robert Greenblatt is going to be fired after this TV season ends in May and he will be replaced by someone with more brains. That person will keep his only #1 time period as is and not f*ck with the one thing that isn’t broke.
Seriously NBC are you drinking the Kool-Aid from Jamestown? I think everyone is wondering what you are doing over there?
UPDATE: David Letterman really ripped Jay Leno and NBC a new one tonight on The Late Show at 11:35p on CBS. He really killed it tonight, but then again this was only 22 years in the making.
