Jimmy Fallon Speaks Up on Conan vs. Leno, Neutrally

Wow, it must be awkward to be Jimmy Fallon right now. He’s still the new guy, with his show hanging in the balance between two comedy giants on his network. Probably he doesn’t want to be pushed to 1:05 but it’s not really for him to say, now, is it? (Though everyone else at NBC is weighing in, so, why not.) Fallon did so last night in an earnest, even-handed moment where he acknowledged both Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno as “two of my heroes and two of my friends.” He also pushed the blame onto NBC with a joke about falling in love with a wonderful girl and then finding out that the in-laws were crazy — but acknowledged and thanked Conan for rejecting NBC’s offer (“he said it wasn’t fair to him and he said it wasn’t fair to me, which was very nice of him to say” – applause from crowd). Fallon hit the perfect kid-brother note here, and created yet another notable late-night moment stemming from all this. Also he followed it up with a seriously brilliant and more than a little crazy bit about their graphics guy. Late night TV is becoming unmissable these days.

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