Somewhere Conan O’Brien is laughing. After a less then amicable removal of O’Brien as host of the “Tonight Show”, a position he held for only six months, NBC has former host Jay Leno back and Conan forced off the air until at least September.
The backlash that broke out against NBC and Leno has not yet been forgotten, as there are still numerous groups on the web who’ve promised a boycott of the “Tonight Show” as long as Leno is host and I for one am I part of it. I’ve never found Leno particularly funny, only stiff, dopey, and at times, coming off as condescending to his audience.
I’m not surprised in the least to say that his first week back as “Tonight Show” host has once again, left me with nothing but thoughts of his mediocrity and inferiority to former host O’Brien and most of the competition he’s going to face nightly once again.
The mistake NBC made was bringing Leno back, had they been dead set with removing Conan due to poor ratings, then they could’ve at least stuck to their guns and brought in a brand new host altogether to avoid all the controversy that they hopefully knew they were going to face for this act.
The sketches and gimmicks feel forced with the cast of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” participating in “Jay-Walking”, even a visit from future Hall of Famer Brett Favre couldn’t mask the fact that Leno’s humor hasn’t changed, even though the disastrous “Jay Leno Show” failed using the same basic setup as his first go round on the “Tonight Show.”
It’s hard to rationalize why NBC would want to get rid of such a popular host as Conan, due to ratings after only six months, but still, they should’ve at least started over from the ground up. Jimmy Fallon is proving to be a worthy successor to “Late Night” and maybe even putting him in the “Tonight Show” seat and Conan back to “Late Night” would’ve provided a different option, but NBC seems sold on Jay Leno, a man they had signed to a retirement contract four years ago when O’Brien was announced future host of the “Tonight Show” in the first place.
To cause an even bigger shake up, maybe bringing in a comedian like Jon Stewart who’s been dominant in key demographics on cable network would drum up enough positive buzz and carry such a strong fan base that even a poor lead-in such as “The Jay Leno Show” wouldn’t be able to cripple ratings. The “Tonight Show” as it stands now is one that is definitely reeling from all this controversy and the bland monologues and sketches for Jay’s first week back didn’t do anything to ease the minds of some viewers.
One sketch, “Kitty and The Cop”, a fake buddy-comedy with Leno and a puppet cat as policemen was so forced that one has to wonder how the audience mustered any sort of laugh, because after one week it’s safe to say, they’re laughing at you Jay, not with you.
