The TV Zone

I was intrigued by this Lee Cowan story on this morning's edition of "The Today Show."

It's about "The Tonight Show."

This is a good piece, but it understandably avoids the elephant in the room. Prez Obama is going on "Tonight," but not going on "Meet the Press," whose very host intro'd this story. Obama's return tonight isn't in itself terribly interesting at all- he's been on a couple times, and I think just about every candidate, from dog catcher to potential president, has turned up too. What's unique is that this is the FIRST SITTING POTUS to go on "Tonight." That's fascinating and I've yet to see a precise answer anywhere explaining why.

But it is interesting that he's doing this in lieu of "MTP," which has been one of the first stops for just about any president who has a hugely important message to convey. Why, why, why? I address this subject in today's Newsday.

We've got the full line-up of first guests on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

Here it is, with commentary:

**Monday, March 2 – Show 0001 - Guests include Robert De Niro, Justin Timberlake and musical guest Van Morrison [Timberlake, announced yesterday, to draw in the young 'uns...]

Tuesday, March 3 – Show 0002 - Guests include Tina Fey (NBC's "30 Rock"), Jon Bon Jovi, and musical guest Santigold [Tina is one of the favors Jimmy F said he was calling in ... maybe Bon Jovi owes him a few hundred bucks, too ...]

**Wednesday, March 4 – Show 0003 - Guests include Cameron Diaz, Billy Crudup, and musical guest Clap Your Hands Say Yeah [Cam's getting married to that Brit model; maybe they can be the first contestants on the new Jerry Seinfeld show...]

Thursday, March 5 – Show 0004 - Guests include Donald Trump (NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice"), Serena Williams and musical guest Ludacris [Uh-oh, just four days in and Jimmy has already been enlisted to flack for the primetime schedule.]

**Friday, March 6 – Show 0005 - Guests include Drew Barrymore, Chace Crawford, and Mario Batali [Barrymore's got that new reality show for VH1 about tough love, or somethin'; and Chace is on hand of course to talk about/promote those new episodes of "GG."]

**Monday, March 9 – Show 0006 - Guests include Rose Byrne and musical guest The Lonely Island [Rose, splendid Rose, is welcome on any talk show any time, as far as I'm concerned; the LI guys are pals of Jimmy's and have already done a funny vlog for him...]

**Tuesday, March 10 – Show 0007 - Guests include Emily Blunt, Michael Stipe, and musical guest Pussycat Dolls ["Devil Wears Prada" babe Blunt is eye-candy for all the young dudes Jimmy needs to succeed here..]

**Wednesday, March 11 – Show 0008 – Guests include Russell Brand, Kevin Rose &
Alex Albrecht, and musical guest The Virgins [Diggnation, Attack of the Show dudes Rose and Albrecht play to Fallon's tech/geek fascination, which you'll see a lot of here...]

**Thursday, March 12 – Show 0009 – Guests include Tracy Morgan (NBC's "30 Rock") and Malin Akerman [Tracy, another favor. Hope he arrives sober..no, hope he doesn't...]

**Friday, March 13 – Show 0010 – Guests include Brian Williams (NBC's "Nightly News with Brian Williams"), Kristen Wiig (NBC's "Saturday Night Live"), and
musical guest Trace Adkins [A pure gift to the mother network; looking forward to Wiigy though...]

[Pix: Frazer Harrison of Getty captures Emily...]

Off this week but no reason at the moment not to a.) Express my profound regret at the state of the New York Jets, as I do every year at this time (sometimes, most times, a little earlier than this); or b.) Post an interesting study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which said politicos were on late night TV more than ever, ever, ever before.

In fact, four times more often than in '04.

Please head on down to the jump for the full release, but here are the nut grafs; of note - the guys that did poorest seemed to be on the mostest...

"Presidential candidates made 110 appearances on late-night TV comedy/talk shows during the 2008 presidential election campaign, according to a study released today by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA). The study found that John McCain appeared more often than any other candidate...

"Candidates in the 2008 campaign went on comedy/talk shows more than four times as often as their predecessors in 2004, who totaled only 25 appearances. Candidates with the most appearances in Campaign ’04 were John Edwards and Al Sharpton (5 apiece), Howard Dean (4), and Carol Moseley-Braun and Wesley Clark (3 apiece). Hosts with the most guest candidates were Bill Maher (10), followed by Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Jon Stewart (4 apiece)."

Continue reading "Record deployment of late-night TV by pols" »

Did you know that late night comics have been nailing the Republican ticket more than the Democratic ticket?

Surprise!

That's the kind of stuff you learn here at TV Zone. The Center for Media and Public Affairs, which counts such things, has released its late night comic data, and found that since September 1 through last Friday, the Repubs were hit by late nighters 475 times, while O'Biden got clubbed just 69. CMP boss Robert Lichter told the AP that this is the greatest discrepancy (a 7-1 ratio) since 1988, when he first started tracking this stuff.

What does any of this mean? Honestly, beyond the simple fact that Obama isn't very funny, nor is McCain, and certainly not Biden, which leaves...

Do you see where I'm going here? Her name is...

The CMPA, and subsequent news articles based on this research, always tries to tie the late night comic ratio to some sort of voting pattern, but honestly, I have my doubts. If that were the case, then someone named Reagan would have never been elected, nor Bush 1 or II, nor Bubba. In other words, if there's a correlation it may simply be that people vote FOR candidates who are poked at: It's called a "humanizing" effect. Whatever...some of the AP story by David Bauder is on the jump...

BTW, here's a fairly typical/amusing example of Palin ridicule...from early October...

Continue reading "Late Night Comics: Favorite Targets" »

I missed last night's late night diplomacy swap, where Jay Leno went on Jimmy Kimmel's writer-deprived show, and vice versa. But fortunately, the sun never sets on the Hollywood Reporter empire. Here's a quick transcript from Jimmy's appearance with Jay, courtesy HR. Amusing (and clip below)...

Jimmy Kimmel: Will you write some jokes for me? Because it seems like you've got plenty.

Jay Leno: I can't. That's illegal.

Kimmel: Oh, that's illegal. Yeah, it's very confusing how it works. But it's lousy, and it makes booking guests difficult because people don't want to cross a picket line.

Leno: Sure, sure.

Kimmel: So now we're -- instead of movie stars, you get, you know, the cast of "Celebrity Fat Club 5" on the show. You know, it's --

Leno: But there is an advantage.

Kimmel: What's that?

Leno: You don't have to see a lot of stupid movies and pretend they're good.

Kimmel: But -- yes, that is true. But you have to see stupid reality shows and pretend they're good.

Meanwhile, if you're in the mood for a full-fledged clip...then let 'er rip:

Last night's Leno Redux reminded everyone (awake) exactly what sort of role these shows play at moments like this - the provision of a nice bright sheen to a politician battling for one last vote in a breadbasket state like Iowa (where they probably actually prefer "Tonight" over "Late Show.") Mike Huckabee showed up after a long day of rumors that he would not - reportedly shaken by the fact that (ohmygod) there's a strike going on and mustn't alienate the fifty unionized employees who actually vote in the Iowa caucus!

He was there and he was quite good, and if somehow miraculously pulls off a win tonight, that slick jam on bass with Kevin Eubanks will go down as a nice asterisk in political history (not quite Bill on sax, but it'll do.) The guy's a very poised talk show guest, and no reason to take my word - here's just one YouTube clip that actually begins with his musical stand-up.

Of course, we all know viewer/voters are hip to this sort of slick political gimmicky, don't we? Oh yeah...

The usually sober AP even zapped Huckabee's supposed flip-flop on "Tonight" with this report filed long before it was clear he would trade jokes with Jay:

"Mike Huckabee once again displayed an inability to grasp the facts of a conflict when he said he didn’t know he was crossing a picket line to appear on the Late Night with Jay Leno on NBC last night.Campaigning earlier yesterday in Iowa, Huckabee said he believed the writers had agreed to allow late-night shows on the air, the Associated Press reported. But when told that only David Letterman and fellow CBS host Craig Ferguson struck deals allowing writers to come back to work, Huckabee murmured, "Hmmm," and, "Oh."

Meanwhile, wonderful to have both Dave/Jay back last night. "'Caucus' is a Greek word," explained Jay, "which means 'the only day anyone pays attention to Iowa.'"