... As with Leno, if Fallon has good guests, I will watch him. It took me many years to warm to Leno, as I did not watch him regularly until the mid-2000s. I rarely stayed up later than 11:45 in the 1990s anyway (working FT and getting up at 7 AM).
Ditto. I usually watch these talk shows primarily for the guests, not the host.
I have DirecTV, so I can watch the east coast feeds three hours earlier, at 8:35, and not worry about staying up late or DVRing the show.
It took me years to warm up to Leno. I swear that for years before and during his early stint on "The Tonight Show" (1992) he always wore those outdated suit jackets with the rolled-up sleeves. That used to irritate me to no end, it was so old-fashioned, having gone out of style circa 1988. But now it's difficult to find any such photos on
Google or Bing. It's like they have all been scrubbed! Was I hallucinating?
So far, as the new "Tonight Show" host, Fallon's okay. He is a bit more of the early Steve Allen-Johnny Carson "Tonight Show" mold--with the skits, bits and sketches. Leno rarely did sketches. (I remember watching those early 90-minute New York Carson shows, starting in 1967, as a young kid who often found it hard to fall asleep.) Fallon was very weak and stiff during his early days as the "Late Night" host, but gradually got more at ease and learned to improvise more. I'm guessing he'll get much more comfortable as the "Tonight Show" host. (But he's gotta stop calling virtually every guest his "fave." And learn to be a better listener and interviewer. On his former show and currently, he often dominates the conversation and informs the audience himself what the guest is promoting rather than letting the guest do the explanation.)
Seth Meyers on the other hand is a complete mess. Yuck! After the few couple of episodes, I have been watching only the opening ten minutes or so of a handful or other episodes just to witness the sheer awfulness of it all. Everything about that show is unappealing, from the small dorm-room desk with the visible feet, dull set design, blah band, weak jokes and bits, and the pitiful delivery of the material by Meyers. "Hello, how's everyone? Now, to the news." That's his basic intro every night. He has no timing. He wears this smirky grin throughout the opening. And despite how weak a joke is, the audience applauds
every single joke. Every one! (And I think I hear the same woman laughing loudly during every monologue that I have watched; they must have some paid professional laughers in that crowd.) I do not see this show lasting much longer in its present format.
Letterman used to be great, but he has been phoning much of it in the past few years. I used to like his earlier days when he too used to have more bits and skits. He does have a killer band, perhaps the best in late night, with Paul Shaffer.
Of Letterman, Ferguson, Conan, Meyers, Fallon and Kimmel, I am getting many more yuks from Kimmel these days. But, as I said at the beginning, I watch these shows more for the guest, not for the host. If none of the guests interest me, I generally won't tune in. (I am usually doing something else while these shows are on anyway--multi-tasking--not just sitting on a couch.)
