CHICAGO - LENO'S NEW SHOW LEAVES CRITICS COLD

LENO'S NEW SHOW LEAVES CRITICS COLD

At the beginning of Hank Stuever's review of The Jay Leno Show in the Washington Post , he writes, "It's like going to bed really early. It feels old." He concludes it by remarking, "And who won't watch Jay when nothing else is on, or when the nurse won't come change the channel?" Mary McNamara, the Los Angeles Times 's TV critic agreed. "This is the future of television?" she asked facetiously. "This wasn't even a good rendition of television past." McNamara commented that Leno's opening monologue seemed "like an attempt to cash in on the current vampire fixation -- comedy of the undead." Verne Gay at Newsday used almost identical words "The future of television Monday night looked a lot like the past." And Alessandra Stanley echoed in the New York Times "The future of The Jay Leno Show is likely to look almost exactly like The Tonight Show past." Robert Bianco in USA Today described it as a cut-rate, snooze-inducing, rehashed bore," then remarked, "If Leno's desire is to help fans get to sleep earlier, desire satisfied." Said Damian Holbrook at TVGuide.com "I've seen Discovery heath documentaries that are funnier than The Jay Leno Show." On the other hand, Maureen Ryan, the TV critic for the Chicago Tribune , allowed that while Leno is not the funniest comic host, "he is one of the hardest-working men in show business." And several critics thought that it was too early to make snap judgments about the show. "As the weeks unfold, it will be interesting to see if Leno lets himself go a little, if he pushes himself and his comedy into new places," commented Matthew Gilbert in the Boston Globe . Likewise Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle kept a running commentary going on his blog software throughout the show, concluding, "It's impossible to judge a show from one episode. And I'm sure I'll check back in periodically. But not tomorrow. Or the next day. I've seen enough."

15/09/2009