After weeks of speculation, it was finally confirmed that Jimmy Fallon will be the next host of The Tonight Show! He will take over the position from Jay Leno in February around the time of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Before the news was officially confirmed on Wednesday, Jimmy and Jay had a little fun with the rumors on Monday night's show:
Then on Wednesday after the news broke, Jimmy could finally talk about it openly with his viewers. He seemed truly gracious and excited about his new role:
As
FalPals, we're of course very excited that Jimmy was given the prestigious job of hosting the legendary television institution that is
The Tonight Show. However, we are also a bit concerned. It's hard to forget what happened to Conan O'Brien, who like Jimmy, was given
The Tonight Show after successfully hosting
Late Night, only to be fired due to low ratings after a few short months. While we're optimistic that it will work out better for Jimmy, since his comedy is a bit more broad than Conan's (and Jay Leno is now 5 years older and less likely to try to take the show back),
The Tonight Show is more heavily scrutinized than
Late Night, where Jimmy was free to do whatever he wanted. Hopefully Jimmy's comedy translates to 11:30, and he'll host
The Tonight Show for many years to come!
Jimmy taking over
The Tonight Show also yields the question of who will take over as the new host of
Late Night. While no official host has been named yet, according to various reports online,
SNL's Seth Meyers is in final talks for the job and is widely expected to accept the position. This makes a lot of sense because like Jimmy, Seth has succeeded on
SNL (both were Weekend Update anchors) and with Lorne Michaels serving as Executive Producers of both shows, it would be a very easy transition. If Seth does end up taking the job, we will of course be sad to see him leave
SNL, but he has been on the show for almost 12 years, so its certainly understandable that he'd want to move on to something else, and he certainly seems suitable for the role of
Late Night host. While he mainly serves as Weekend Update anchor on
SNL, he's also the show's head writer, which means he would have a lot of great ideas for for material on his own show. And though he hasn't appeared in many non-Weekend Update sketches lately, in his earlier years he frequently did many impressions (John Kerry, Anderson Cooper) and characters (The Needlers, David Zinger), which will come in handy for doing all sorts of topical bits. But of course what matters most is how he does behind a desk talking to guests. And as evidenced by his many appearances on
Late Night, he's very funny and comfortable when talking on
light night shows. Here'a a clip of him talking to Jimmy Fallon on
Late Night. This aired the night of Hurricane Sandy and there was no one in the audience:
And if Seth is looking for a sidekick, we can think of no one better than his own brother Josh Meyers. Josh, who starred on SNL's competitor sketch series MADtv, has often appeared on Late Night with his brother Seth to play the Sibling Game. The two clearly have great chemistry.
So will Seth take over Late Night from Jimmy? Hopefully we'll find out soon! If he does, looks like we'll be watching 2 hours of TV every night!
Last weekend Melissa McCarthy returned to host SNL , and although she did a good job (though not as great as her first time hosting), our favorite part of the show was the return of Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy! While we don't always love Vanessa Bayer's characters, ,this one is one of our favorites currently on the show. The accent is hilarious, but what really makes it great is the facial expressions. Vanessa, a 31 year old woman, really becomes this 13 year old boy. I love Jacob's goofy smile after he tells each corny joke, and how quickly he goes back to his serious speech. He also has great chemistry with Seth, who really seems to be amused by Jacob. So far, Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy has appeared twice at the Weekend Update desk. Here's his appearance from last weekend's show talking about Passover, followed by his appearance last December talking about Chanukah:
