Leno at 10 p.m.

The only part of it I "watched" was the very beginning of the Kanye West interview. Dad #1 and I both flipped ol' Kanye the bird. =)

 

The ratings were huge. I thought I heard on the radio that he had a 12 share. If the 11:30 slot gets a 3 share it's usually a good thing. Of course nothing else is on yet. He had Seinfeld and Kanye and everybody always tunes in for the first show.

Once he's going against the regular 10 p.m. programming, he's going to get his ass kicked. What I'm curious about is if NBC even cares. The show will be so cheap to produce that they might be happy getting a few million viewers a night rather than invest the kind of money it would take to look for another show like ER.

 

It's amazing, in one sense -- anyone who remembers the early Jay Leno, from when he was on Letterman, knows he has a sharp comic mind.

So he has to realize that making decades-old jokes about Viagra, etc, is hack work. But he's also smart enough to know that's what works for his aging demographic.

I have to assume he fully realizes what he's doing, and is fine with it.

 

Spirited Said:
"Someone care to translate this from Kanye to English:

"So many celebrities, they never take the time off," he said. "I've never taken the time off to really — you know, just music after music and tour after tour. I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt. My dream of what awards shows are supposed to be, 'cause, and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That's period. But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve.".


[/quote]

From my point-of-view, It wasn't an apology. It was an excuse.

He did not address Taylor Swift with that explanation. He was just verbally wandering about looking for sympathy from fans. Jay is an entertainer and so he is not expected to grill guests who foul up like this (Remember his asking Hugh Grant with a laugh, "What were you thinking...?.)

I do wish, however, because of that, that Leno's producers had denied Kanye permission to speak -- especially since his apology wasn't much of one.

If Kanye is *really serious* about taking time to get life in order/get his head on straight/get off the tour, etc., he needs to do it AWAY from the media. NO talk shows, NO cameos at concerts or MTV, NO magazine/newspaper/blogging/internet interviews.

If he's serious about getting his head on straight, that is how he should do it.

Not meaning to threadjack here, but there was an article I found interesting that relates to the reason (potentially) for all the stupidity we have seen from athletes/celebs in the last few days.

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/article_ae352762-a20b-11de-939c-001cc4c002e0.html

We are losing civility in this country. I think it is because we are losing touch with reality, thanks in part to meaningless reality shows, giving celeb status to chronic nobodies, and deciding to let *actual* celebrities like Kanye et al get away with what they do without fear of some kind of consequence (i.e. loss of ticket/CD sales, less promotion via talk shows, etc.).

People see celebs getting away with stuff like this and make the assumption, "If Kanye & Serena can do this, I can, too."

Nowhere in West's statement do you hear an "I'm sorry" directed to Taylor Swift, and that *really* is how he should have started his comments, even before launching into what eventually said.

 

Maybe I'm the only one, but I did get a good laugh out of the car wash skit.

 

Just watched it.

I watched a Fallon rerun last week where he had Sandler on. It was 10 times funnier than this was.

I figured with three months to prepare the monologue would at least be good. Wrong.

Seinfeld was bland. The Oprah deal went nowhere. The faux Obama interview was painfully bad.

Here's my take on the Kanye interview... His publicist made sure Jay asked about Kanye's mom so as if to make him appear sympathetic, because they guy has had a hard year.

Jay-Z was the best part of the night.

Headlines were funny. They usually are.

 

Fallon's slow jamming the news (and the McCain interview) and Conan learning a new stunt were better than anything on Leno.

 

What about "Thicke of the Night"?

That show introduced us to "Flicke of the Night," which eventually spawned "Mad Movies."

 

Now this is a talk show

 

Here's my take on late-night as it stands:
Leno, NBC: Non-imaginative, made by bluehairs for bluehairs.
Conan, NBC: Can be very good, but still booking guests like it's on at 12:35 a.m. The earlier slot is largely about who you have on as a guest, and the Tonight Show staff ain't gettin' it done.
Letterman, CBS: Current gold standard. Dave's got the guests, does good interviews. Show occasionally lapses into doldrums, tho.
Kimmel, ABC Some inspired bits. Decent guest roll. Still, tends to work more blue than some are comfortable with. Also, has a lot of schlock deadweight that needs trimmed.
Ferguson, CBS: My current fave, takes self-deprecation to an artform. Craig is not an interviewer, never will be. Some of the skits are already tired. But, on any given night might have the best show of the crop, which is why I continue to tune in.
Fallon, NBC: Following the same trajectory as Conan - insufferable at first, but slowly gaining momentum with some very funny and creative stuff.

 

Everyone keeps telling me Ferguson is great, but in the times I've given him a shot, it just hasn't clicked for me.

 

You start making eight figures a year and winning in the ratings, you start thinking, "Hmm, this must work."

I'm not a Leno fan, and I doubt many here are (we're all too smart and clever for what he does, ahem) but he's all about producing a product that's going to sell.