The Chris Moeller Archives

"The Jay Leno Show" will suck

Your parents' favorite comedian, Jay Leno, returns to the airwaves tonight-- this time in prime-time-- despite being replaced on "The Tonight Show" in the spring and despite what Salon's Heather Havrilesky calls "his severe lack of charm, subtlety, wit, or interviewing skills."

I don't know if Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" was ever any good. How could I? I never watched it. Not more than a minute or half-a-minute at a time anyway, 7 or 8 minutes a year, for 16 years. "The Dancing Itos" were just an invention I read about in TV Guide. (Seemed pretty lame.) I never saw the Hugh Grant confessional that turned Jay around in the ratings. (That so-called "television event" always struck me as staged and obvious.) But you've got to hand it to Jay. He's an able politician. He continues to masterfully play "the game" while denying that he's actually playing it.

It doesn't matter if his new show is any good. It just has to be inexpensive. That's why NBC scheduled it.

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Here's New York Magazine on King Dave.

posted by CM @ 11:09 AM