Report: NBC Discussing Leno Exit Strategy (Update: Fallon gets the job)*

I'm sure everyone's first reaction was "Yeah, right..."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sources-nbc-discussing-jay-leno-425669

 

That is an interesting story. I don't dislike Jimmy Fallon, but I dunno about him having the "gravitas" to host the Tonight Show. I think you need somebody with a lot more weight (and not just physically).

Hosting a show like that is one of the toughest jobs in show bidness, particularly following in the footsteps of Carson, Jack Paar, Steve Allen, and so on. I think Letterman is one of those guys who came closest to pulling it off, but I sure don't get that sense from anybody else currently on the air.

I also liked Conan to a point, but I also never felt he was quite qualified to host. Still, I felt what happened with him getting pushed out of the 11:30 time slot was almost criminal. I'd like to see Fallon have the guts to have Conan come on his show and give him advice on how to handle Jay...

 

I thought this story surfaced months ago. I wonder if the "two high level industry sources" are associates of Fallon ... or of Conan ... or of Letterman.

In the past year or so, Fallon's credibility in the industry seems to have improved. When Fallon first took over the 'Late Night' talk show many people thought of him as a bad joke and he had trouble getting quality guests - not the case anymore. And he almost always beats Craig Ferguson in the ratings.

I would expect Jon Stewart to take over Letterman's chair and Fallon to take over Leno's chair whenever those two leave their respective shows.

 

When the whole Conan/ Leno mess was going on, Fallon took some (what I thought were low) jabs at Leno and the situation of Conan leaving several times on his show. I was surprised NBC allowed that by one of their own. If nothing else it only added to the negative atmosphere surrounding the network. I would like to think NBC has more sense now and wouldn't allow it again. It does seem to me NOT to be a very classy thing to do, either - on the part of anyone. (Reality check - this is show biz and the world of late night talk shows and personalities we're discussing.) I think the worst thing Conan has done since being fired from 'The Tonight Night' was to periodically drag out the 'victim' card. He was on Letterman a little while ago and the two of them trashed Leno - yet again. To me the constant wallowing in self-pity, the whining and bitching, the insults and demonizing of someone else gets tiresome - and it does not display a great depth of character. It's nothing I have ever respected in Letterman and neither in Conan.

 

In fairness though, it looked to me like Conan didn't necessarily want to go there but Letterman kept pushing the issue. Conan certainly displayed a level of bitchiness I didn't really expect from him in the months afterwards, but otherwise I think he's done a good job of not continually dwelling on it since then.

Personally I think it hardly matters who takes over at this point, because the audience just doesn't seem to really care about these shows much anymore. I honestly don't know anyone who makes it a point to regularly tune in to any of them anymore and I'm in my thirties, old enough to have been around when Carson was still on the air and Letterman and Conan were appointment viewing for my friends and I, so I have to assume the younger audiences must care even less about these shows now. Like Fred De Cordova supposedly told Letterman when NBC asked him to replace Leno in the early days of the first Tonight Show scandal, what you'd be inheriting now is no longer the same prestige show it used to be, it's been tainted. I think Fallon would do fine because at this point I don't think anybody could return it to what it once was. I don't know that he would bring in lower numbers than Leno, but I sure don't think he'll boost them either.

 

Generally agree with you. It's a point I made in a thread a long time ago - that I didn't understand Letterman's almost pathological bitterness over not getting 'TTS' because once Carson was gone it wasn't the same show anymore (and he and Leno basically both ended up with the same show of their own) . And this isn't a cheap shot at Leno. I don't think it mattered whether Leno or Letterman had succeeded Carson. The franchise ended with Carson. I believe the PBS biography of Carson, which aired within the past year, made the same point.

And in light of writing that, I think Carson and the Carson TTS years has been romanticized a little too much. (Looking back from Steve Allen's debut to Carson's last bow with an objective eye, I don't think the quality was as consistently high on a daily basis as we might imagine it was.) I think much of the nostalgia for the pre-Leno TTS has to do with the culture/ society that doesn't exist anymore; and a TV universe that doesn't exist anymore - 3 networks + some local independents and the occasional PBS station. Fewer choices - no serious competition to the TTS or Carson. Add to the mix rose coloured glasses looking back at the past.

 

Finally someone onto the truth. Sure carson had great stuff at times, but there was a lot of mediocre and silly stuff also. Its in vogue to look back and use rose colored glasses, and act like Carson was something fantastic all the time. He was unique, good sometimes, but im willing to bet most wouldnt even be able to watch hour after hour of a lot of his old stuff, without getting bored.

It looks good looking back.....but it seems to look a lot better than it really was.

 

One person who could be a wild card in all this is Tina Fey, if she's interested...I think she would be great as host of The Tonight Show (and I believe NBC would give it to her she wanted it).

I just wonder why NBC thinks Fallon would be more successful than Conan was...

 

I suspect that Fey would like to pursue a film career (perhaps more focused on writing- producing-directing than acting - and it might be more financially rewarding), but TV is probably where she is more comfortable and would be more successful. BTW, '30 Rock' was a medium success and not a ratings giant some of its fans assume. It [and Fey's] repute is far greater than its actual success. I never understood how as the head writer for some of the worst SNL years, Fey walked away critically unscathed, in fact just the opposite - praised and admired for her work there. (There's a cable channel here that plays old re-runs of SNL on daily basis. Recently watched an episode in which Fey and Amy Poehler host the 'Weekend Update' news skit - badly written and perhaps even worse performances from the two of them.)

While Fey is a likable and attractive personality, not sure of her skill at writing (or supervising the writing of) stand-up material (rather than skits) and delivering it; nor of her skills as an interviewer; nor of her ability to be funny or witty on the spot, unscripted.

 

The traditional monologue/host-behind-the-desk format seems pretty tired to me. That said, Fallon certainly seems fresher than the others(and honestly, can't we all relate to the mega-music geek he is?). I question the potential of late-night dominance with the format in general.

 

Leno sucks and I'm excited for him to leave. That is all

 

Whatever is decided...he will leave chin first.

 

You make some valid points but skimmed over the most important one..."likable and attractive personality" which I think is the key towards hosting a nightly show, even more than comic ability. I was basing my opinion more on her talk show appearances and award show hosting more than anything else.

 

I think he sucks far less than most of the other late nite guys. There are far too many.

 

And yet, it is the young audience that is driving all of this -- NBC is worried about Jimmy Kimmel taking away younger viewers at that time.

I really think that they shouldn't move Fallon out to LA and burden him with the label "The Tonight Show." He should just keep doing the same show he does now an hour earlier. (OK, maybe in a bigger studio.)

 

Fey should be given SNL to run once Lorne Michaels steps down, which hopefully is quite soon.

 

So who would be candidates for Jay's replacement?

 

While the idea of Tina Fey taking over SNL has a certain appeal, she's already spent several years on the show, so even being the boss might seem like a step back. And Tina, while she produced 30 Rock, is foremost an writer and performer; Lorne Michaels' role is entirely administrative.

 

Have no idea if Tina Fey would uproot herself and family to LA for a 15 years or longer committment as a writer and Host ??

 

If the older audience caught up with new media (or connected with the Adult Swim-style 15 minute show format) Leno would be killer as a 15 minute daily show. Monologue and one bit. Yes, I'm a Leno fan and I try to catch those 15 minutes as-is anyway. I'm in my 30s and even I don't know how what this #lenomono means, but it's a search term that NBC uses.

But I'd love a 15 minute show.

As for The Tonight Show - I think if/when Leno exits, it's time to retire the name. The moniker seems to be a heavy weight that's not worth the burden anymore. It's always, "Can so-and-so host The Tonight Show?"

Let the next generation take the time slot and retire the burden. It just doesn't have the meaning it used to - to younger viewers who never grew up with Carson and think Bob Hope was a guy who created an airport in Burbank (true - I met a young actress who asked why I have pictures of that guy in my office), it just sounds like the Oldsmobile.

Just my thoughts.

Jeff

 

If this is true, it has to be rather torturous for Conan that after all that drama, NBC only wanted Leno for another five years anyway. It's not like he defeated Conan to reign another 20 years as the king of late night.

 

Getting someone funny that also knows how to do a proper interview might be a concept, but then we're talking Hollywood...

 

Well-played by Jimmy Fallon.

 

Same here. I get tired of watching a guy that can't do a monologue without having his eyes glued to a teleprompter. Seems like his sense of humor is off with the rest of the audience. Watch how he laughs at some Headline News clips that the audience only snickers at.

 

You should've said, "no matter what, Jay will leave with his chin held high!"

In the book on the late-night wars about the fight between Letterman and Leno, they interviewed one famous comedian who said <paraphrasing>, "everybody was worried with who would become the new King of Late Night after Johnny left. What nobody realized was... when Carson left, he really took the show with him. Nobody ever could replace him. And there are so many talk shows now compared to the world before the 1990s, the Tonight Show just isn't as relevant as it was in the 1980s, 1970s, or 1960s." Hard to argue with that.

To me, Letterman's bitterness was justified, because Carson already considered him his heir apparent, he had hosted the Tonight Show many times, he had dutifully done what Carson's production company had done with the Late Night show, and always been cooperative with NBC. After all that, he gets rewarded by what he felt was an upstart former friend who basically stepped on him to get what he wanted.

I think Conan's case was more complicated, but to me, it was a contractural problem where they should have put in a proviso that once Leno left, NBC could not give him back the Tonight Show for at least a year, nor could they give him another talk show of any kind, in any time slot. But I think nobody ever imagined the possibility that Jeff Zucker would be so crazy as to do a 10P-11P talkshow with Leno every night prior to the Tonight Show. It was impossible to imagine such a thing.

BTW, on the list of "The World's Rarest Shows You'll Never See in Re-runs," I'd add the 95 episodes of The Jay Leno Show. You ain't gonna see those anytime soon.

Nice thoughts on the current Leno situation by Hollywood comedy writer Mark Evanier. I'd tend to side with Mark, that Leno ain't gonna leave until he's ready, or until he's really pushed. If Letterman suddenly retires, and Fallon threatens to takeover that CBS timeslot, then you'd see something happen.