MovieChat Forums > The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992) Discussion > Jimmy Fallon is not going to give NBC th...

Jimmy Fallon is not going to give NBC the results that they want.

posted 11 years ago by hudsonz
25 replies | jump to latest

Late Night Talk shows are already kind of an outdated thing. People that grew up with them still watch them but NBC is not going to get crazy numbers from the younger demographic just because Fallon is hosting. People used to love watching talk shows at night because they couldn't watch an interview with a celebrity or watch a band perform on youtube. They also didn't have tablets and other devices to keep them occupied before bed. The older demographic that still watches The Tonight Show is going to be turned off by all of Jimmy Fallon's talk about the internet and social media. They're not going to lose all of their older audience and some younger people will watch for Fallon but it's not going to produce the numbers that they want.

[–] 007135 11 years ago

Urgh.

Us younger people, atleast myself, watch Conan.

Unfortunately his is on cable/pay sat which I don't feel like spending for.

Your feeble skills are no match for the power of kittens.

[–] a_l_i_e_n 11 years ago

TBS is grandfathered into cable packages covering 88% of the country. That's a shame if they didn't include your area.

[–] MrBlondNYC 11 years ago

The major difference this time is that NBC actually has a few hit shows now so they're not as desperate as they were in 2010. When The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien had lower ratings, NBC saw their only hit in the ratings besides Sunday Night Football going down so they panicked instead of giving Conan time. The same thing will happen with Fallon. The ratings will go down but this time NBC has more money coming in so they will be willing to let Fallon grow. Eventually, his audience will grow just as it did for Late Night. And with Letterman even closer to retirement, this is a good game plan to win late night. They don't need total domination as they had with Carson. They just need to keep their advertisers and affiliates happy.

George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.

[–] stickley85 11 years ago

I think NBC is going to regret they ever did this again.I mean seriously,Conan is way better than Jimmy Fallon is and he didn't appeal to alot of the Leno audience,so how is Jimmy going to do it,when he is no where in hell as funny as Conan is?Letterman,Kimmel,and Hall must be so happy that they will do better in their ratings now that Leno is gone.Hopefully Jay goes to another network,because in my eyes,he just did not look ready to leave.You could see it in his eyes,the expression on his face on his last show,he even started breaking down in tears.He just looked like someone was taking away something that has meant so much to him.

[–] jt5686 11 years ago

Never could understand when the power people think getting a younger demo is more important than anything in the tv world. Does anyone believe that young people spend more money than the young kids? Plus Fallon is like a trick pony. Anything with Timberlake is really funny. Singing with guests using kids toys is also great. But he doesn't do interviews very well and he's really not that funny.

[–] Rheli 11 years ago

Does anyone believe that young people spend more money than the young kids?

The theory is that the 18-49 folks are more fickle in their tastes, and willing to change brands and make impulse buys. Supposedly the older ones are more set in their ways and so advertising won't work on them, or at least not as well.

[–] a_l_i_e_n 11 years ago

Letterman,Kimmel,and Hall must be so happy that they will do better in their ratings now that Leno is gone.

Yes, and I suspect a good bit of the outrage that Kimmel and Letterman displayed when Jay returned was not completely out of any sympathy for Conan, but, rather, because they were annoyed that the sudden ratings surge they enjoyed after Conan took over was going to dissolve if Jay returned. And, as we saw, that's exactly what happened. Poor Conan my left foot.

[–] rp69 11 years ago

I don't understand it. According to the ny Daily News, in the past year Leno has averaged 3.5 million viewers nightly. Letterman doesn't even come close with 2.5, Kimmel at 1.9, Jon Stewart at 1.5 and Conan at 1.0. He has a full one third more viewers than the second highest show. Why fix what isn't broken? They tried it a few years ago and failed miserably. Plus Leno isn't even ready to retire yet. So why?

And over at CBS, they don't seem to be in any hurry to replace an older Letterman with a steady history of being second best.

[–] a_l_i_e_n 11 years ago

Why fix what isn't broken? They tried it a few years ago and failed miserably. Plus Leno isn't even ready to retire yet. So why?

Yeah, it seems crazy. I guess it's just an indication of what dire straits NBC is in financially that having the #1 talk show (in all categories yet) is still not profitable enough for them. I like Jimmy and I hope he's able to do what they're expecting of him.