Despite the fact that critics find him largely unfunny, and his squishy middle-of-the-road politics can be annoying, I generally have a soft spot for Jay Leno. I’m not claiming he’s the funniest guy to ever grace the planet, but he’s certainly not unfunny in the way someone like Dane Cook is—the kind of unfunny that make’s you angry and sad. Whenever I hear him speak or give an interview, he seems nice. I’m not saying I make my TV choices based on how nice a person seems to be through the false lens of a soft-ball interview (that’s how you pick a president), but if your going to be only moderately funny, it helps if you’re not a jerk too.
The Tonight Show under Leno was rarely hilarious. But it often made me giggle, if quietly, or at least smile. At its worse it was just fine, not funny but not boring. Which, it occurs to me, is all I really expect from a TV show that airs when I really, probably should be sleeping. As a general rule, the later the TV program airs, the lower my expectations. When your competition is another rerun of Becker and the juicer infomercial, the bar is relatively low.
So what to make of Jay’s new show, now it a sort-of prime time slot? Having watched only the second episode, my snap judgment is that the show is remarkably similar to, well, every late night show. While many genres have come into and out of fashion (the variety show, even sketch comedy other than SNL), the late night talk show format has stayed remarkably similar (and popular) since Steve Allen. You have an opening monologue, some skits, followed by celebrity interviews—all spurred on by some band/sidekick. Each new show introduces twists (Conan had his sidekick with him on the couch, Jimmy Fallon does his skits live, Chevy Chase removed the comedy aspect), but the changes are minor compared to what remains constant.
That’s weird considering that a major component of the format (celebrity interviews) is usually so dreadful. Celebrities may be interesting when they perform or are filmed having sex, but when they talk about their work, their family vacation in Turks & Caicos, and their new pet project to circumcise poor people, they are predictably dull.
Leno keeps basically the same format of his old show in his new show with a few, seemingly unnecessary twists. He doesn’t sit in a chair behind a desk. He interviews celebs via video in a segment called 10 questions (where we learned that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz both like to laugh. That Cruise has never been to a strip club and doesn’t know if he’s better at sex or flying. Hopefully he’s better at both than he is giving improvisational answers to silly questions), and the set rotates to reveal different rooms for different bits.
It’s all fine. The monologue is good enough. In the episode I watched, a guest comic riffed about various things in the world he didn’t like and it was fine. The interview was boring but fine. In other words, it’s all the same. I didn’t like or dislike it.
The question is, will viewers tolerate three hours of basically the same show in Leno/Conan/Fallon? Three hours of jokes about how Mark Sanford is crazy and Joe Biden doesn’t know when to shut up? Three hours of Cameron Diaz telling us she likes sun screen? In one sense, the people watching at 10 are different than those watching at midnight, so maybe it’s not a problem. But the real challenge for Leno’s show is that will fine is better than fine at 11:30 pm, I’m not sure it is good enough for 10, when people have choices. Late Night TV provides one of the few opportunities for a captive audience as most watch from their beds or, at least, as they start to think about their beds. But at 10 people are moving around. There are crime dramas on TV. Lunches that need to be packed for the next day. Kids to put to bed. Twitters to twit.
Ratings were great the first show (as expected). Less so the second show (also as expected). On one hand, NBC must be betting if you liked Leno at 11:30, you’ll also like him at 10. As one of those people who likes Leno, I’m not sure that’s a bet I’d take.
Then again, I predicted Lost would be canceled after one episode and that Lipstick Jungle would be a smash. So what do I know.
[...] Jay Leno’s new primetime experiment began, I expressed my general ambivalence about the whole thing. As I said then, I find Jay Leno rather harmless, not hilarious by any [...]