| Late Night with Jimmy Fallon | |
|---|---|
| Format | Talk show Variety Show |
| Created by | Jimmy Fallon |
| Written by | A. D. Miles (head writer) |
| Presented by | Jimmy Fallon |
| Starring | The Roots (house band) |
| Narrated by | Steve Higgins |
| Opening theme | "Here I Come", The Roots |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 562 (as of December 23, 2011)[1] (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Lorne Michaels Michael Shoemaker |
| Producer(s) | Gavin Purcell |
| Running time | 60 minutes (with commercials) |
| Production company(s) | Broadway Video Universal Television |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original run | March 2, 2009 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1993) Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–2009) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon on NBC. The show premiered on March 2, 2009, as the third incarnation of the Late Night franchise originated by David Letterman.
The program airs weeknights at 12:35 am Eastern/11:35 pm Central in the United States.[2] Former host Conan O'Brien departed on February 20, 2009, to begin preparations for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
Contents |
The show begins with the opening sequence as Steve Higgins announces that night's guests and "the legendary Roots crew". Just before Higgins introduces Fallon, the camera cuts to a shot of The Roots, who then shout three numbers symbolizing the episode number of Late Night (though other numbers and statements have been shouted in place based on current events, cities via phone area codes, and historical show moments). As the camera pans over to the main stage, some members of the Roots perform actions to get the camera's attention (F. Knuckles salutes, Captain Kirk Douglas does a windmill chord, and Damon Bryson smiles while flashing a peace sign). Higgins then introduces Fallon, who begins his brief monologue. Fallon often gives the cue cards for a joke to audience members if the joke falls particularly flat. After each monologue Jimmy says "We got a great show for you tonight. Give it up for The Roots".
After the monologue, Fallon typically performs a comedy "desk piece." Some are weekly: "Pros and Cons" on Tuesdays, and "Late Night Hashtags" on Wednesdays. Fridays are also reserved for Fallon to write "Thank You" notes to figures that have given him material for the past week. He also sometimes has the entire crew of the show write letters home.
After the desk piece ends and a commercial break follows, typically there is a competition involving players selected from the studio audience. These have included "Wheel of Carpet Samples," "Cell Phone Shootout," "Lick it for Ten," "Let Us Play with Your Look," "Put It In Reverse," and "Hot Dog in a Hole." Occasionally the segment features a group-performance competition, "Battle of the Instant Bands" or "Battle of the Instant Dance Crews."
In the show's third segment, the first guest arrives. That guest usually stays after the next break, and a second guest enters after the show's third break. Once these interviews have been completed and the show has taken its final commercial break, the musical guest (or sometimes, a chef or comedian) performs. Once the musical guest has finished, Fallon bids the viewers farewell. As credits roll, Fallon runs up and down the stairs of the studio giving high fives to the audience before exiting backstage.
Executive producer Lorne Michaels said he wanted Fallon to be the new host dating back to the day that Fallon left Saturday Night Live in 2004,[3] which occurred only a few months before O'Brien's departure was announced.[4] According to Michaels:[3]
| “ | Jimmy's built for this kind of show. He's funny, he's charming, he's got a really good way of connecting with people. And he knows music, movies and TV really well, which is the backbone of these shows. | ” |
During the years between Fallon's SNL departure and the announcement that he would take over Late Night, Fallon concentrated on developing a feature film career, which Fallon himself said "really didn't work out that great."[3]
Fallon was announced as O'Brien's replacement in May 2008; at the time of the announcement, he was scheduled to debut in June 2009.[5] To help him prepare for his new Late Night host role, Michaels had Fallon perform stand-up comedy in clubs and create a series of webisodes.[3] A behind-the-scenes vlog documenting preparations for the new show launched on December 8, 2008, with new episodes being posted weeknights at 12:30 a.m. ET.
On January 8, 2010, Fallon announced that the show would be bumped to a 1:05 am start time, with the move of The Jay Leno Show to 11:35 pm and subsequent bump of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am start.[6] This proved to be false, as O'Brien refused the change, citing a reluctance to infringe upon Late Night, and saying it would be "unfair to Jimmy." [7] Conan left The Tonight Show on January 22, 2010. Jay Leno returned to the Tonight title on March 1.
On May 11, 2011, the show opened with Jennifer Hudson performing "No Woman, No Cry" by Bob Marley. It was followed by the regular show opening.
On September 9, 2011, the show aired its 500th episode. Guests included Lauren Graham, Joel Edgerton, and Pearl Jam.
On October 5, 2011, Conan O'Brien made his return to his former show for the first time in two and a half years.
The program originates from NBC Studio 6B in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City, the original home of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which was not the studio from which Late Night had been broadcast since 1982, but which had housed the WNBC news studios since Carson had moved his show to Burbank, California, in 1972.[8] Fallon's house band is hip-hop band The Roots,[8] and his announcer is Steve Higgins, a producer for Saturday Night Live.[9] The show is produced by Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video in association with NBC's Universal Media Studios.
Fallon premiered on March 2, 2009, with Robert De Niro, Justin Timberlake, Nick Carter and Van Morrison appearing as his guests. Former Late Night host Conan O'Brien also made a cameo appearance in the beginning.[10]
On July 28, 2010, former stage manager Paul Tarascio accused Jimmy Fallon and the producers of Late Night of sexually discriminating against him. Tarascio alleged he was demoted and then lost his job to what he describes as a "less qualified"[11] woman because, "Jimmy just prefers to take direction from a woman."[12] Following the demotion, Tarascio continued to protest the change, including complaints directed to his union representative, and was subsequently fired based on a list of job failures provided by NBC.[11]
An NBC spokeswoman said that claims of sexual discrimination were "without merit".[11]
The debut episode received negative reviews across the board and was considered to have "arrived needing plenty of work".[13] In particular, critics noted Jimmy Fallon's nervousness and profuse sweating as well as awkward comedy pieces like "Lick It for 10".[13] However, interaction with the show's house band, The Roots, was applauded and it was noted that "a bit in which Fallon sang a "slow jam" version of the news succeeded, in large part, thanks to Roots' typically taut playing and singer Tariq 'Black Thought' Trotter's impeccable voice and surprisingly good comic timing".[14] The LA Times commented that "the late-night role seems on the face of it a good fit" for Jimmy Fallon and that "this is a form that develops in the fullness of time, as chances are taken and limits tested and you learn the things you can learn only in the doing, night after night".[15] The series as whole so far has scored a 48/100 on Metacritic, and viewers scoring it at a 4.8/10.[16]
Despite cautious reviews, the show was a ratings favorite during its premiere week. The show outperformed its main competitor, CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, by half a million viewers. Fallon also managed a higher viewer total than his predecessor, Conan O'Brien. Fallon's total viewer count was 21% higher than Conan O'Brien's 1,991,000 Late Night average this season [17], although it is disingenuous to draw such a comparison as new shows open to highly inflated viewership. Fallon maintained his lead over Ferguson until the night of March 16 when The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson attracted a larger audience (1.47 vs. 1.27 million viewers).[18]
For the week July 27-July 31, 2009, Late Night was the ratings leader with a 17 percent lead in adults 18-49 and a 42 percent lead with adults 18-34. Since the show aired on March 2, Fallon has ranked number one or tied Ferguson in these demographics on 97/100 nights.[19]
After Jay Leno returned to The Tonight Show, in total viewers Late Night (2.0 million viewers overall) out-delivered Late Late Show (1.7 million) by a margin of 17 percent the entire first week.[20]
In the May 2010 sweeps, Late Night has a higher rating, a roughly equal share, but fewer average viewers, than The Late Late Show. The two are tied in the demographic of adults age 18 to 49, with Late Night having a slightly higher share.[21]
In the May 2011 sweeps, all of NBC's late night programming reported increased viewership. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon reported a 13% increase in viewership compared to the previous year.[22] Late Night, though, managed to beat The Late Late Show by a very small margin.[23]
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||