Professional tip for “The Tonight Present’s” Jimmy Fallon: Don’t tousle Greg Gutfeld’s hair!
Fallon’s late-night present frequently trails behind “Jimmy Kimmel Dwell!” and the soon-to-be extinct “Late Present” with Stephen Colbert.
It’s a shocking fall from grace for a program that outlined late-night TV for many years. Johnny Carson’s NBC reign won’t ever be duplicated, however successor Jay Leno’s 20-plus-year run proved a good runner-up.
Now, Fallon’s showcase can’t draw a crowd, providing foolish gags and watered-down Trump jokes.
Enter Gutfeld.
Fox Information’ late-night celebrity routinely trumps Colbert, Fallon and Kimmel within the scores. He does so on cable tv with a fraction of the price range his friends take pleasure in.
Sure, he’s on at 10 pm ET, however he additionally lacks A-list friends or different commonplace TV points of interest. It helps to have very humorous individuals on-air like Jamie Lissow, Michael Loftus and Jim Norton.
That explains why Fallon invited Gutfeld onto his present subsequent week, in response to the Fox Information star.
Uh oh.
Fallon has fastidiously groomed his viewers to count on left-wing jokes and progressive stars. Even the right-leaning Child Rock, who as soon as appeared regularly on “The Tonight Present,” is now not an everyday visitor.
Don’t search for Ben Shapiro on the NBC sofa, both.
Fallon did invite a significant GOP determine onto his present in 2016. Future President Donald Trump appeared on the identical community that hosted his “Apprentice” present for 13 years. Fallon yukked it up with Trump and even tousled the true property mogul’s iconic ‘do.
That drove the Left and the Media, however we repeat ourselves, right into a frenzy.
Trump destroys Jimmy Fallon at his Pennsylvania rally for the time when Fallon apologized for “humanizing” him in the course of the 2016 election by messing up his hair on the Tonight Present.
“How WEAK and PATHETIC is a man like that?” pic.twitter.com/m3Wvl8pCf2
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) September 24, 2024
Fallon later apologized for having a significant political and cultural determine on the air, one thing any late-night host ought to do as a lot as attainable.
In a sane world, that’s.
Since then, Fallon has taken a dramatically liberal stance towards his monologues. He went gentle on President Joe Biden for 4 years and hits GOP-friendly targets early and infrequently.
He’s not as merciless as, say, Colbert, in his comedy, however he’s advised right-leaning viewers they’re not welcome. Not good riddance, however riddance, to paraphrase Kimmel.
So why reverse course now?
RELATED: LATE NIGHT LIES NO LAUGHING MATTER
It’s easy. Late-night TV, as a format, is dying. “The Late Present” gained’t be the one TV cancellation coming our approach. Eventually, Fallon, Kimmel and Seth Meyers will likely be on the unemployment line.
Fallon’s workforce is aware of a Gutfeld look will spark headlines and, hopefully, a quick scores bounce. And, sure, the Left and the Media (however we repeat ourselves) could howl in protest.
It’s time to suppose outdoors the field, at the least when you’re a late-night TV producer.
Gutfeld sounded diplomatic in regards to the look.
“I’m psyched about it as a result of Fallon comes throughout as an incredible man, good man,” Gutfeld advised his co-hosts. “Additionally me occurring his present reveals him that he’s not anxious about upsetting his friends.”
Gutfeld is mistaken about that. Fallon cares deeply about upsetting his friends and their progressive brethren. He simply is aware of there will not be a Plan B if he desires to remain on the air.