Why Jimmy Fallon's "Tonight Show" Is The Best Yet

By Elana Goodwin on December 10, 2014

Jimmy Fallon took over hosting “The Tonight Show” from Jay Leno earlier this year in mid-February and since then, he’s propelled the long-running late-night talk show to new heights and increased ratings, and made his mark on “The Tonight Show.”

Photo Credit: NBC

“The Tonight Show” first aired on NBC in 1954, with Steve Allen as host. He was later succeeded by Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and now Jimmy Fallon has taken over hosting duties. Fallon also spurred “Tonight’s” move back to New York City after it had been taped in California for 42 years.

Fallon hosted “Late Night” on NBC from 2009 until when he became the “Tonight” host, and the two shows are even shot inside the same studio – studio 6B – at Rockefeller Center, only it had major renovations done prior to him taking over Leno’s hosting gig.

But before Fallon even entered the late-night talk show world, he appeared on “Saturday Night Live” from 1998 to 2004. And it’s clear he’s brought his comedic chops and an “SNL”-esque style to “Tonight,” in addition to “SNL” creator and producer Lorne Michaels as an executive producer on the show.

By channeling the “SNL” mojo, he’s rejuvenated the show with a younger more playful feel, as he’s done shorter, more diverse music-oriented and entertainment-centered bits.

While Fallon has, of course, retained interview segments with his celebrity guests, he’s introduced more games, musical bits, and other sketches, in which he and his celebrity guests compete or collaborate. And viewers love to see these segments because they like to see celebrities having fun together and doing things that we do (stars – they’re just like us!), and Fallon is the fun-loving good-natured coordinator of these activities.

In his time on “Tonight,” he’s hosted lip-sync battles with Emma Stone and Paul Rudd, recorded classroom instrument versions of songs alongside their hit artists like Idina Menzel and Meghan Trainor, sung holiday parodies with Rashida Jones, and slow jammed the news with Brian Williams.

He’s “mom-danced” with Michelle Obama, shown the world Daniel Radcliffe has mad rapping skills, had his song “Ew!” with will.i.am place at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and more.

Jimmy Fallon’s turned “The Tonight Show” segments into a plethora of viral videos, with many of his videos getting millions of hits and altogether, 1.77 billion views to his channel.

Which is why, for good reason, Jimmy Fallon was recently named Entertainment Weekly’s 2014 Entertainer of the Year. Since Fallon became “Tonight’s” host, he shocked everyone by increasing ratings from when Leno was at the helm.

Within the 18-49 key demographic, viewership is on average 31 percent higher. Instead of losing older viewers who many expected to flee when Leno left, Fallon kept them and added a younger audience, too, bridging the generation gap.

In November, NBC honored “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” with a marquee at 30 Rockefeller Plaza recognizing the show’s return to New York, located on the 6th Avenue entrance to the building.

Since this time last year, “The Tonight Show” has also majorly increased their Twitter followers from 514,000 to 1.8 million, rose from 765,000 to 4 million followers on Facebook, and went from 1.5 million to 5.2 million subscribers on YouTube. Those stats have pushed him past every other late-night host, surpassing even the ratings for CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” combined.

And his historic ratings feat isn’t the only history Fallon’s made on the show. So far, he had the late Joan Rivers as a guest after she was banned for 25 years and got Barbra Streisand to appear as a guest when she hadn’t done so in over 50 years.

Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” is like a star-studded party with a relaxed vibe, music, and games, and at the end of it, you don’t want to see the guests go home, but know there’s another fun-filled “party” happening the same time the next night.

By making “The Tonight Show” a must-watch for all ages, utilizing social media and YouTube to reach and connect with new viewers, and infusing a new energy and more creativity into the show, Jimmy Fallon has made “The Tonight Show” the best it’s ever been, and has claimed the throne of late-night television.

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