On Sun, Jul 13, 2014 at 4:43 AM, JW <[email protected]> wrote: > > Fallon's success and format may > > not signal the death of late night talk shows as we have known them, but > it > > might signal that a traditional talk show is no longer required to draw a > > strong audience in that time slot. I expect we will be seeing traditional > > talk shows in the late night time slot for many years to come, but we > also > > may be seeing other kinds of late night entertainment shows too. > > The one thing I'll say here, and I don't want to overstate it, is that > these shows tend to find their way back to the Carson template, no matter > how hard the people involved try to change it. Even Ferguson, who tried so > hard to be different, found that interacting with a sidekick (goofy though > Geoff may be) works well for him. Fallon may prefer Yambo to interviewing, > but the formula evolved because it works. >
One reason for the "return to talk" is that, while it might not be more entertaining than anything else, it is easier to maintain at a relatively entertaining level than the alternatives. A year or two from now, when whatever Fallon's schticks are now that seem fresh and new begin to feel old and stale, will he be able to keep coming up with new and entertaining things? Maybe. But also maybe not. I heard him interviewed a few months before taking over from Leno, I think maybe by Gross, or maybe on a podcast, saying that he loves staying late after the taping of a show working on a bit for the next night, or coming in over the weekend to work on stuff. Perhaps he will still want to do that 10 and 15 years in, but most likely, he will not. Stewart and Colbert each produce 40% of the show that the late night broadcast boys do, but I am certain they work at least 50% harder (maybe even 100% harder). Sooner or later it becomes clear that it is just easier, chepater, and produces a higher hit rate, to spend more time talking to whoever is on the celebrity wagon train (to use Tom Hanks' phrase) than to make up new sh*t every freakin night. As I say, Fallon may prove the exception (again, in part because he is just so very bad at the talk part), and maybe he will put in 20 years at the Tonight Show with steady and low levels of interview; but I do not expect to see late night celebrity talk going away from broadcast prime time anytime soon. -- -- 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/d/optout.
