Friday, February 14, 2014

The Chin will Be Back (unfortunately)

Everyone knows that Jay Leno has passed the "Tonight Show" torch and in fact there was a post by Aryeh  earlier in the week explaining the transition to Jimmy Fallon hosting the "Tonight Show." This is undoubtably a good thing for Fallon and something that Leno has known for about five years when they announced he would be replaced. What most people don't get is that Jay Leno is not the type of person to disappear from pop culture. He was already kicked off his own show and came back to host it for 4 more years after the last host bombed (Conan). As much as I despise Leno and his corny middle-America aimed comedy, I cannot deny his tenacity. He will never stop working or talking for that matter. He is a better comedian than he is a talk show host and I think most of his genius comes from more organic situations than a late night talk show set. Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is a show that Jerry Seinfeld hosts and its pretty self-explanatory. Leno is very funny in this situation because it is an environment he looks comfortable in. Leno is also a self-professed car enthusiast and, like Seinfeld, has a vast collection of rare cars. If he was smart, which I think he is, Leno would host a car show on a cable channel (a la "Top Gear" for all the BBC fans out there). He is also apparently being courted by Fox affiliates in an attempt to get him to host an 11pm talk show on their network. This would directly compete with the "Tonight Show" for about a half hour which could cause some programming problems for NBC and its new host Jimmy Fallon. Nevertheless, Leno shouldn't be crying about him leaving the "Tonight Show" because he will be back on the airwaves quicker than David Letterman can say "he stole my job in the 90's."

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