The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" is a great television program/show (whatever you wanna call it). It is one of those American shows good to watch especially at night.

This is a type of program which isn't intended to be a great production, ambitious, brilliant or artistic. It is made for pure fun and entertainment, ingredients which are very well combined. And all of this with Jay Leno's humor, which is funny and not dirty. Jay Leno is such a talented, cool and funny guy. He's perfect for this night show and he makes it a pleasant television experience. In fact, I think that this wouldn't be the same without him.

I wonder if there's any celebrity that hasn't gone to Jay Leno's show yet. It is above all things a program where famous people go and talk to Jay Leno, with full audiences watching the show. In fact, the number of celebrities that already went to this show is countless.

Conan O'Brien's show is an alternative to this one. Basically it is exactly the same thing (sceneries are equal and everything else). However, I personally prefer Jay Leno, so I recommend his show more than the show of Conan O'Brien.

I must say out of all late night shows, he's my least favorite. I guess what I hate the most, and I know many will agree, is when he tells a joke in the monologue and goes on for about 5 minutes about the same damn subject. Also I find his humour to sometimes be too patriotic. Although he does often have excellent guests, it doesn't make it a much better show...

Of the 3 late night talk shows,Leno's is definitely the worst.The problem is,he rarely comes up with any jokes himself,unlike Letterman and O'brien,who have the rare gift of being able to think of things to add to their material on the spot eg-the monologues and it actually be funnier than their given lines.Leno,however simply does not have this ability,and it is the writers you admire and not the host,which shouldn't be the case,as the most important thing is to love the host.

Another thing the show suffers from is that it feels more like a comedy show than a talk show.There are far too many unfunny comedy sketches and obviously set up occurences for it to have the unpredictable feel of Letterman,which thrives on its spontinaity.It tries much too hard for laughs.A very annoying and unnecesarry part of the show is the black band member(I can't remember his name)that is really only there to let out huge and put on sounding laughs at everything Jay says and to be the butt of a lot of Jay's jokes.

I don't hate the show,I mean if there's nothing else on,I'll watch it but it comes nowhere near its two competing talk shows.

Jay Leno and his version of THE TONIGHT SHOW are simply not funny. His style of humour is cornball. His lame jokes do not elicit laughs from the audience but groans. His voice is irritating. His regular features like JAYWALKING are stupid and not original. Wearing a denim shirt with jeans looks ridiculous. What he has just done to Conan O'Brien is unforgivable. My bet is that many people in Leno's committed audience (retirement home patrons) have either forgotten him or died and won't be back. I say his ratings will be flat and within one year he will be yanked from NBC for good. Bets?? Many people in the entertainment business will boycott his show. He will never woo the younger audience NBC very much needs. Hot bands will refuse come in his show. Jay, please go away.

Obviously being in the UK I might not see this show in the same light as it's seen in the US, but I discovered the show in April-ish 2003 when it started broadcasting on the little known UK channel Ftn (also broadcasts on CNBC Europe, although only a couple of episodes a week)...

Soon grew to love the show's topical humour (we've normally heard of the particular subject in the UK) as we don't really have a show that broadcasts on the same level for the whole year. The guests are also obviously well known to us, so pretty much the whole programme makes sense and is always worth a watch!

Only when it comes to the musical performances do I get a little stuck as not all the bands have much (or if any) UK exposure.

Stu