While most of the media (including ourselves) has been spending much of their time over the last six months focusing on the late night shitshow that is the Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien debacle, the producers of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon have to be pretty glad that they’ve managed to stay out of the public fray and been allowed to develop their show outside of the harsh spotlight. That said, we’ve continued watching the show on a (near) nightly basis, and we’re happy to report that the show has been developing quite nicely. Over the last few months, Fallon has made considerable strides as an interviewer and host: Though he’s admittedly still got a long way to go before he reaches Letterman (or even Craig Ferguson) levels of proficiency, he’s greatly improved both his monologue skills and his rapport with guests. For whatever reason, guests who come on the Fallon show always appear to be relaxed in his presence, which makes them willing to go along with weird bits that they would never do on The Late Show or the Tonight Show. Take the nanny-boinking Lothario Jude Law, for example. Can you imagine him doing a dramatic recital of the lyrics to “Poker Face” on any other show? We certainly can’t.
