The week in “Late Night,” which really was the week in “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”

We all heard and saw a lot of press about late-night TV in the past week, but would you believe that the person who got the most beneficial coverage in the past seven days was the guy you'd least suspect? Unless you were considering Carson Daly. And why would you have been? Stop it. Just, stop.

With all of the commotion surrounding Conan O'Brien, it was more than interesting that New York magazine chose to make Jimmy Fallon its cover profile last week. The article/profile itself is worth reading, though, as you see how Fallon's version of "Late Night" is unlike anything Conan or David Letterman ever would have imagined, mostly because Fallon could never be another Conan or Letterman. He could only be Fallon. So why not play to his strengths?

And that includes the Internet generation. Mashable talked to Fallon quite a bit about how he has embraced the Web and everything that comes with it.

Most stories about how Fallon has redefined late-night TV for himself focus on those moments that become viral videos, because he and his staff have figured out how to cut the show up into easily digestible bits, such that an individual segment can break out from the hour itself. This week featured moments like that. In many of these moments, it's Fallon reacting to or collaborating with someone else on something wild. Fallon as Neil Young covering "Pants on the Ground." Fallon with Justin Timberlake doing the all-time hip-hop medley. But this week, when Jeff Goldblum played piano to "duet" with Biz Markie on Markie's hip-hop classic, "Just A Friend," I wished that Fallon could have stepped away for just a moment to let it play out organically. If that's my biggest quibble, then at least his staffers can still be happy about what they're doing with Late Night.

Roll the clip.


 

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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One thought on “The week in “Late Night,” which really was the week in “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”

  1. “We all heard and saw a lot of press about late-night TV in the past week, but would you believe that the person who got the most beneficial coverage in the past seven days was the guy you’d least suspect?”
    Jimmy Fallon? Really? Nothing outweighs the publicity surrounding late night for THIS particular week than Conan O’Brien. You are kidding yourself thinking otherwise, I’ve never seen so much hype surrounding late night in a while.

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