Jay Leno: Still unfunny in primetime
So Jay Leno now gets five hours of primetime every week. The time that NBC used to devote to revolutionary shows like "Seinfeld," "Friday Night Lights" and "Southland" is now filled with Leno's consistently unfunny monologues and interviews with jackasses of the week such as Pee Wee Herman and Kanye West.
Before "The Jay Leno Show" started, NBC swore up and down that the new show would be nothing at all like "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." They are two different beasts, they told us!
They lied.
"The Jay Leno Show" is identical in almost every way to "The Tonight Show." I have, as a service to NBC, compiled a list of the most important differences between the two shows, so that NBC's flacks may highlight just how "fresh" and "revolutionary" this show is. Because if NBC doesn't start spinning its message about how "awesome" this show is, some mean bloggers might get the "wrong" idea that this show is perhaps the greatest failure in modern television and an embarrassment for the entire network.
So here goes:
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"The Jay Leno Show" starts a full hour and a half before the "Tonight Show" does. Can't you tell time, it's earlier! And different!
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Leno no longer sits behind a desk, but rather in a plush arm chair, when he interviews guests. More legroom! Totally different!
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The shows have two completely totally different names. It's radically different!
I am not enough of a sadomasochist to devote any more time to the study of Jay Leno or his chin to compile a more definitive list. But rest assured, I have been generous in my list of differences between Leno's old and new shows.
I don't say any of this to disparage Leno's viewers. If you are one of the dozens of American college students who watch Leno, and not out of some demented fascination with how all his facial features are squished into the center of his face, I applaud you. You are one of the few brave, brave people who have defiantly said NO in the face of better entertainment options like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Conan, Letterman, "Glee," or good old-fashioned masturbation.
You are to be congratulated. Or pitied.