The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon

Getting to the stage where I'll check the guests on opening credit, and if nothing appealing likely just switch channels. Check out all the good bits streaming/YouTube. Least spared the terrible opening monologue.

 

My older daughter is 24 and she doesn’t have cable or an antenna. Same with my younger colleagues at my previous job, all the twentysomethings. I don’t thing any of them have a way to watch broadcast TV, and most don’t have cable or sat.

Even I rarely watch live TV in the traditional sense. It’s all DVR or streaming for us. I honestly don’t understand how ratings work anymore, the whole model is shattered.

dan c

 

My household actually got sampled by Nielsen 2 years ago. Its so old school, they give u a piece of paper with time slots and you write down what you watch. When we watched streaming they wanted to know that, but they didn't care what you watched. So for example the week we were sampled we watched Netflix from 7-10 on Friday, we just wrote "Netflix." Naturally, they couldn't care less which show we were watching on Netflix. As far as shows on DVR they did have you record that... I can't remember now though if we wrote it in the time slot we actually watched it or the time slot it originally aired.

 

For his fifth anniversary Fallon is doing a full show tribute to the Larry Sanders show. It’s not been exactly funny but I think the nod to Garry Shandling is cool. It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on so I wonder how many viewers know what’s going on too.

 

Would Craig Ferguson do a better job hosting The Tonight Show ?

 

Way too eccentric and out there for the general public. Fallon has his approach to late night, and it seems to be working out pretty well for him.

 

I like Fallon. Can Ferguson sing and carry on like Fallon? Play games?
Apples and Oranges.
I miss Craig's show just the same, I thought he was great too, kind of has a
'Letterman' approach of talking to guests, that's just uncommon, and more fun.

 

Craig’s more intelligent + amusing. But banal ? No!

 

Watched The Tonight Show the other night.
Jimmy Fallon spitting water at Ryan Reynolds & vice versa,kinda banal, no?

 

Back at 30 Rock — with a new set.

 

Announcer Steve Higgins and 3 Roots members aren't there. Personal reason option or having the entire Roots socially distanced would be weird on camera without looking a 3 level Hollywood Squares set.

Seems like a lot of effort to keep doing "at-home" interviews.

 

Too soon. The only reason I'd tune in was to see the kids. This set up to launch Peacock? Yes,I miss the Roots,but they have always belonged in Philly,not NYC. Looks like Seth Meyers is still in someone's(in laws?) house -Emmy worthy. Fallon without the giggling kids-so what?

 

Yes.

 

I dunno, I like seeing 'Fallon' back and 'trying' during this time.
Thumbs Up from me.

 

It's ironic that most of these late night hosts bowed before Carson, yet they never learned from him the importance of not letting on about their personal politics.

 

I know some who works there and they said they are being tested once or twice a day, everyone is masked up when not on camera/etc.

But seems like a risk without a great reward.

I hope they remain safe and disease free.

I really think they don't need this show to continue during the pandemic.

 

How true.

 

For decades there were two major ratings-tabulators in the US for radio: Arbitron, and Birch. Of the two, Birch was the best indicator because of its' ergonomic methodology (daily phone banks of phone surveys, no paper to remember filling-out, no bribing participants to "guilt" them into just writing down their favorite stations): call-outs, tabulate the demos, weigh the results on which audiences you need answers from, not by fudging.

The result: younger, up-and-coming stations got audience feedback they could actually sell to clients, older, established stations showed realistic audience erosion.

The natural outcome: Arbitron bought Birch...and shut. it. down.

This is how Nielsen survives: by protecting their brand.

 

Times are different, and far more politically polarized than in Carson's day. Also, the audience is fragmented by having literally hundreds of times more viewing options than they did during Carson's peak. Trying to attract a wide, broad, general audience is far more difficult, because people can easily find many other things that cater to their specific tastes and biases. Fallon did initially try to avoid expressing his personal politics, and Colbert swept by him in the ratings by taking the exact opposite approach and stressing his politics. Carson's approach would not work in this era.

 

Also, I think most of today’s late-night hosts looked up to Letterman, not Carson.

 

True, but Letterman took the same broad, politically vague approach as Carson for his first 15-20 years or so. It was really only in the 21st Century that he started to get more pointed and personal in the political views he expressed. And I suspect he did this in part because he recognized that times were changing and a different approach was needed.

 

OT just a little:
If things ever really get "back to normal", I wonder if the slick, dazzling sets, over the top humor, the quick cut jumping pace, and dressing up for the chat shows as we were used to seeing them is going to be the same.
I think people have gotten used to the toned down vibe of things.

I certainly miss the GOOD SOUNDING AUDIO AND VIDEO of a REAL production!!

 

Fallon or Leno doing "neutral" monologues were underwhelming after Jon Stewart changed the game forever. I don't think Fallon has topped the ratings since 2016 after leading for a year or two.

Meyers/Colberts still have "desk" segments that are intentionally non-political. Mostly "weird news" items and clearly a step down from the "personal politics".

Lastly, there's several non-political clips of Carson mocking a Trump during his monologue.

 

Jack Paar came before Carson. Just looked up a quote from Hugh Downs,who was the couch sidekick during Paar's time. Downs said that though Paar tried to keeps things neutral,he wanted political folk to interview to educate his audience. Paar was a different bird,and one who was impossible to imitate. Downs also commented that he missed that kind of show and he felt that :"the public learned more about politicians than they are able to now:taken from the PBS American Masters doc:Jack Paar;As I Was Saying. Paar's trump card was his fascination
of the world. carson seemed to have an occasional interest,especially during the early days,trying to fill up almost 2 hours of entertainment. As the show became more formatted and Carson controlled content when moving to Hollywood The emphasis was on the laughs and this was about the time I baled on Carson.
These days,Colbert,Kimmel and Meyers all have a point of view. With so many choices,I think it is encouraged by networks because of fan loyalty.