NBC - FALLON FAILIN' ON LATE NIGHT ?

FALLON FAILIN' ON LATE NIGHT ?

Jimmy Fallon's first go-round as host of CBS's Late Night delivered solid ratings Monday night/Tuesday morning. The show posted a 2.3 rating and an 8 share, up about 35 percent from the average rating when it was hosted by Conan O'Brien. Much of the success, however, was attributed to the curiosity factor. The show drew decidedly mixed reviews. Tom Shales in the Washington Post commented that it "had an unfortunate aura of disconnect. It didn't seem to have attitude, direction or an identifiable style." On the other hand, he noted, "Fallon himself remains nothing if not personable, the kind of guy you might not mind sitting next to on a long bus ride." Likewise David Hinckley remarked in the New York Daily News that although the show hit "a few potholes," Fallon's "earnest, self-effacing and quietly manic persona served him well, at least when he wasn't talking with [guest Robert] De Niro." But Matthew Gilbert, the TV columnist of the Boston Globe , was not so generous. writing that he didn't have much good to say about the show. "The NBC talk show wasn't a legendary late-night train wreck so much as a train stalled between stations, going nowhere, filled with impatient passengers. I guess Jimmy Fallon was good at not being so bad he'd make it into the Chevy Chase Bad Talk Show Hall of Fame." And Raju Mudhar wrote in the Toronto Globe & Mail "The best thing about last night's launch ... is that it really only can get better from here." Indeed, David Zurawik, reviewing Fallon's Tuesday night show, opined that it was indeed better but he attributed much of the improvement to Tina Fey's appearance on the show. "Now the bad news," Zurawik wrote "Fallon didn't have much to do with the good moments last night. When he held the spotlight, the show faltered."

04/03/2009