I’ll keep it quick for this edition of the Jimmy Fallon First-Week Watch: Four nights in, and Jimmy Fallon is loosening up nicely. If he was overly effusive with Donald Trump (Celebrity Apprentice: "I love it; it’s my favorite!" Really, Jimmy?), he had a fine time with Serena Williams, playing beer pong with her.
There was even a potentially corny audience-member stunt, electing someone "President of the Audience," that became funnier the longer it lasted, peaking with a nice, poker-faced cameo by Rachel Maddow, who fist-bumped the host while making her exit. (She’s the best.)
And Ludacris with the Roots? Sounded good — raucous and melodic — to me. Nice job, Fallon.
Comments (1-20) of 20 Add your comment
I am so glad Jimmy is loosening up! I hope everyone gives him a chance to be funny. The last two shows have been really funny.
The monologue is always brutal, but I’m actually starting to enjoy the rest of it. I think he’s going to do fine.
I’m glad he getting loose… now if he can only learn to be funny… and drop the repulsive smugness…. well, ok i still wouldn’t watch….. Fallon is obnoxious and has zero talent. This viewer is done with the Late Show until they hire a host that doesn’t make me want to claw my own eyes out.
go jimmy!
I thought he was genuinely funny for the first time during an interview with Cameron Diaz the night before. I think that showed what he is capable of as he gets more relaxed.
“I’m glad he getting loose… now if he can only learn to be funny… and drop the repulsive smugness…. well, ok i still wouldn’t watch….. Fallon is obnoxious and has zero talent. This viewer is done with the Late Show until they hire a host that doesn’t make me want to claw my own eyes out.”
Conan O’Brian when he started anyone?
I think he’s gotten loose after that first eppy and is quite funny. :]
Ken, are you truly enjoying this sub-fratboy humour? Beer pong? Come on! I could probably lead to to several frat parties tonight where the students will be way funnier than Fallon. President of the Audience? I had the exact opposite feeling.I thought it was stupid and was embarrassed for Rachel Maddow – oh, Rachel, I thought you were more intelligent…
I will admit that I watched most of the show with my headphones on, listening to music, reading the captions. I only really watched and listened to one thing and that was when Ludacris was on with The Roots. Amazing! And then Fallon had to come in at the end and talk and ruin the great vibe. How exceedingly whitebread is Fallon? And then Ludacris made a comment saying he was taking over the show and it was Fallon’s last night! We should be so lucky.
Again, my mantra: The Roots forever! Fallon never!
@DDB, you are complaining about frat boy humor? I suppose the masturbating bear on Conan was Mensa inspired high brow comedy. Lighten up.
@Shamrock…
If you read my comment, you will see that I said “sub-frat-boy humour”, implying that Fallon isn’t even up to that task and could be easily bested by frat boys…
I never implied (in any this or any other comment) that Conan was always highbrow – but he certainly is way funnier that Fallon, and always will be. Before Late Night, Conan wrote for The Simpsons, Fallon wrote for SNL, which has rapidly been declining, oh, for about 15 years. Tina Fey has been the only talent in recent years, and when she was on the other night Fallon not surprisingly made her less funny.
Ultimately if Fallon somehow stays, I will just ignore him and watch Craig Ferguson. I would have actually preferred if they stuck Fallon in Leno’s current time slot and left Conan where he was. It was nice being able to watch Dave and then Conan – in the future I’ll have to record one or the other (and manage to see Stewart & Colbert also).
Horrible. Jimmy Fallon is the WORST talk show host I have ever seen. He is nervous, jittery, corny, almost like he has never been on camera before. His interview with Trump was HORRIBLE.
Obviously, a mistake has been made.
Reuters or NYT hit it on the head when they said Fallon was “an old person’s idea of a hip, young comedian.”
If anybody watching had actually PLAYED beer pong (you know, the entire target demo), they would realize Fallon had no idea what he was doing. He said “Do I go now?” after Serena’s first shot. He also let her cheat.
The concept may deserve some praise — but the execution was horrific. It was slow and wasn’t entertaining. Request for manliness… DENIED.
Ludacris and The Roots were sick together though.
Who cares about Jimmy Fallon? You know there are several other shows on TV we could be talking about. Chuck, Reaper, just to name two. I thought that this blog was about watching TV, not just focusing on one show for a week.
Fallon…. He can be great if he settles down… He kinda was, but he frequently talks over his guest. Almost felt like trying his best to be the “better” person on screen. There are too many gags on the show and half are not even funny. Conan brings these gags in without trying and look natural. Jimmy needs to work on his timing and “dumb” look during silent moments as if he’s defending his thesis and is waiting for someone to rescue him. One of Conan’s guest (His name escapes me now, but he did jokingly said he could have been asked to take over) during his last episode can do a much better job than Fallon. Overall, not impressed with Fallon….
Fallon was a better talk show host on his SNL stoner
web cam skits, and that wasn’t funny, but at least
he was slightly more natural. He makes the cardinal
sin of talking over every guest, without the benefit of saying something witty or clever. The guests that he
has had that are friends can not lift this show beyond
old school show-biz schmaltz that makes it more like
SCTV’s Sammy Maudlin than any other talk show on at
this point in time. I am sure in time he could improve,
but we really don’t need to wait for that. They could stick anyone in the program and eventually they would grow into it, but why should we wait for it. He should bow out now.
Hey EW, what happened to the Friday Night Lights guest bloggers? Heck, what happened to the Friday Night Lights blogs at all?? – Disgruntled.
Might I remind our astute viewers that Mr. Conan O’ Brian was literally hanging on by a thread when his show started. There was much doubt cast at the time whether he would make it…
Bottom Line… Conan is the best. Jimmy, you really do suck right now, but that’s ok, you will get better, or you will retire; it’s up to you.(But I think you’re loosening up, and that’s good.)
I dunno. I really want to like JF – loved him in the SNL days. But I’m just not sold yet. Maybe it’s me getting old and lame.
PS – Yes I remember Conan’s disastrous first month. But he still kinda sucks even 10 yrs later or whatever it was. Time flies I guess. I think Kimmel is the king of late night – seriously…Don Rickles thinks so too.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sarah
http://www.lyricsdigs.com