In 1992 a young comedian named Jay Leno replace David Letterman as host of NBC's late night staple "The Tonight Show". Letterman went off to start his own Letterman Show and Leno was mired in ratings hell for the first few months, though eventually he righted the ship. Today's youth don't even know a time when Leno didn't host the seminal program.
Except for the brief period when he stepped down the last time to host his own show in June 2009. And then jumped back in when things didn't work out so well, kicking out new host Conan O'Brien after a 7-month stint.
Now Leno is stepping down again a mere 3 years later. This whole situation is as ironic as a Leno monologue, a comic institution that made the man's large chin a household trademark and allowed Leno to become an avid motorcycle enthusiast.
So many things to look at here:
Leno was brought back to kick O'Brien out of the show due to poor ratings. NBC, a perennial ratings loser out of the major network, said it was simply business. The truth behind the matter is that the ratings drop could easily be tied to the failure of Leno's new program. The way it went down is that Leno was bumped up to 10 PM, with "The Tonight Show" following it. Leno's ratings were abysmal. Anybody who knows the TV industry knows a show's numbers are often only as good as the ratings of the show that precedes it yet the easy scapegoat was O'Brien. Whispers were heard that Leno, unable to admit his own failure, went to NBC and asked for his old job back, effectively ousting O'Brien who'd been promised the hosting gig years before. One Leno write I'd worked with had described the new set-up as a quagmire, riddled with stale material from the old comic and plagued by the simple fact that the 10 PM crowd doesn't laugh at the same old trash that makes the 11 PM crowd crack up.
Now it's Fallon's turn but, luckily, he won't have to follow a show hosted by a comedy dinosaur.
Fallon's story itself is a strange one. He made his bones on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE but was never really funny. His couple film roles usually cast him as a straight man (he played the d-bag exec in ALMOST FAMOUS) and his main role on SNL was seemingly just to crack up during every skit he was in, like canned laughter circling more talented comedians like Will Ferrell.
A way to gauge SNL actors is to watch their ensuing film careers and see if they end up in starring roles with signature character. Belushi had "Joliet" Blues and Bluto Blutarsky. Chevy Chase had Fletch and Clark Griswold. Adam Sandler had Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, Chris Farley had Tommy boy and Will Ferrell has too many to list. What does Jimmy Fallon have?
That. Being. Said. His show has been well-received and, as a surprise to a lot of people, has actually been lauded as pretty damn funny, too.
Then there's Conan. The long-suffering Conan who everybody with a funny bone can admit is much funnier than Leno was kicked out of the show he'd waited years for. As a kind gesture he kept his staff on payroll, paying them out of his own pocket while he sat in late show limbo. Then he reappeared on cable with a show that's funnier than most of his competitors' but, since it's on cable, the poor bastard is still sitting in the backseat. The best explanation of the situation is found in an episode of 30 ROCK, entitled "Khonani", in which Jack Donaghy gives a promised promotion to a janitor only to receive complaints from the former inhabitant of the job.
And then there's NBC. For a long time they got by with their Thursday night lineup of modern comedy classics like 30 ROCK and THE OFFICE but even their ratings by the end were passable at best. Now NBC needs to make some moves to try and regain some respectability.
It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. Will Leno be able to gracefully accept his motorcycle ride into the sunset or will he try to come sniveling back like he did before? Will NBC, again confused and frightened by its obvious inability to tap into what makes ratings go up, renege on yet another deal? Will Fallon be able to kick up ratings, much less hold on to the current numbers? And will Conan ever get the respect he deserves?
Late night TV with a running plotline. Who knew talk shows could be so intriguing?
- Ryan
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