Thursday, February 6, 2014

Tonight

Tonight is Jay Leno's last night as host of NBC's "Tonight" show.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Deja vu?

NBC kicked Leno out of the chair five years ago because it didn't want to lose Conan O'Brien.  Conan bombed as "Tonight" host.  Leno's 10 PM show tanked as well.  NBC put Leno back on at 11:30, and Conan was axed.

Here we go again.  NBC sees Jimmy Fallon as its rising young star, and Leno gets kicked to the curb again.

If you grew up on Johnny Carson, everyone else pales in comparison, and David Letterman would have been a far better "Tonight" host than Leno.

I'm not a Leno fan, but he deserves better.  All Jay did is deliver NBC a top rated show for 20 years.  He's still popular, and Fallon still looks like a timid fawn.  NBC is afraid of losing the younger crowd to Jimmy Kimmel over on ABC.  NBC is planning for the future.  OK.  I get that.  I still feel the Fallon for Leno switch is premature and a mistake.