On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 10:02 AM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected]>wrote:
> The best ratings that Fallon has seen in his career as a late-night host, > but of course he had an Olympics lead-in and a 12:05 start, while the Conan > and Leno shows offered as comparisons had their usual 11:35 starts--and of > course, late-night is a marathon, not a sprint: > > > http://www.thewrap.com/early-ratings-fallons-debut-ties-best-tonight-show-ratings-nearly-5-years/ > For reasons you note, most of these comparisons are meaningless - except that if Fallon's debut did not have ratings at least this high it would have been a complete disaster. Perhaps the most meaningful comparison is with Conan's debut, which got the same 7.1 rating, without the huge Olympic lead-in, but a half-hour earlier (I think the Olympic lead in is the stronger factor however). I have watched the first half hour - the moment he did not plunge into the audience seeking an approval bath he became no worse than the second best Tonight Show Host in the last 22 years. I thought he was smart to do a double-opening, once to introduce himself and the cast, and to highlight his sincere, unassuming persona, different both than Dave's sarcasm and Leno's pandering, and a second time to do a regular monologue. He was a million times better than he was when he started the 12:35 show, when I thought he was unwatchable. He now is something that I thought Leno never was, which is likable. To me, he is still not exactly funny, but for the role he is in that might not be as important anyway. In terms of social change, maybe even more amazing than the election of Barack Obama as the US president is the decision by a major network to have The Roots be its house band on one of its signature national programs. It really was not that long ago when conventional wisdom would have been unanimous that the good folks in middle America would never accept people who look like that into their bedrooms late at night. Fallon's nice guy, aw shucks schtick, and the obvious musical talent of the group, may go a long way to mitigating any residual discomfort, though if Fallon loses a bigger percentage of his 7.1 rating than Conan did over the first few weeks, I think this might be one of the reasons. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
