The US Late night TV wars are intense, the Jay Leno, David Letterman and somewhere in there Conan O’Brien late-night shows draw large audiences despite their late timeslots, and give the big networks a solid finish to their ratings evening. The biggest stars turn out to be on these shows, and with Jimmy Fallon taking the chair from Jay Leno on NBC recently unless you’ve got Foxtel you’d be missing out – not anymore.
Jimmy Fallon
From tonight (March 24th), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon airs on ABC 2, Free-to-air across Australia.
Jimmy himself seems excited
So excited!! Starting Monday March 24th – we are airing in Australia every night at 7:30 on @abc2! #InternationalDayOfHappiness
— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) March 20, 2014
The Tonight Show that Fallon presents is fresh, fast paced and full of fun. Not that Leno’s show wasn’t, but Fallon himself admitted in an interview with Australia’s Michael Bodey that the younger generation of Hollywood stars are coming to his show, while the older may stay loyal to the likes of Letterman.
Jimmy Fallon at the desk of the Tonight Show
But it’s not the stars that make this show so significant, it’s the fact that Jimmy Fallon is making himself the leader of both the old and new world of TV. His “Linear TV Show” – that is, scheduled and on a given network at a set time – is doing great in the ratings, and the content is built to drive that audience. However online, Fallon is doing everything right. Great social engagement with fans of the show, and crucially all the great content is quickly made available on YouTube for everyone to see – and share.
It’s that sharing which will make Fallon’s best work go viral, and that virality which will make him a TV superstar for many years to come.
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon airs weeknights on ABC 2 at 7.30pm.
