Jimmy Fallon has become a ratings success as the new host of NBC’s Tonight Show by redefining the late night talk format. This content analysis measures how Fallon and eight other late night hosts use their airtime by categorizing the content as either talk, monologue, comedy, music, or introductions.
The study finds that Fallon’s emphasis is on comedy segments that can be turned into viral videos, while he has dramatically decreased the amount of interview time on the show compared to previous hosts. Fallon uses only 37% of his program for talk, which is about one-fourth less than most other hosts and the lowest of any major late night program. The typical late night host uses just over half of the show for interview segments.
Fallon’s ratings have grown in almost direct proportion to the amount of time he has decreased talk segments. Newcomer Seth Meyers, host of the post-Fallon Late Nite program, has taken the opposite tactic by copying David Letterman’s traditional show structure and not modernizing it to match the new Tonight Show. The report also compares Fallon’s show to the content of previous Tonight hosts Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. There is additional comparative analysis of late night program content to nine daytime talk shows, where about three-fourths of the airtime is typically used for talk.
Questions addressed include whether The Tonight Show can continue to be called a talk show and if there needs to be a new genre designation for the format. The study concludes that Fallon and Emmy winner Ellen DeGeneres (who uses only 42% of her program for talk) host modern variety programs and that a new name needs to be created for the genre since their “talk shows” are more “show” than “talk.”
About the presenterStephen Mark Winzenburg
Stephen Winzenburg is a professor of communication at Grand View University and teaches radio/TV courses while supervising the campus broadcast media. He is best known for his research on sitcoms, talk shows, and religious broadcasters. His books include TV’s Greatest Talk Shows and Putting on the Hits, and he has written dozens of articles for industry publications. He presented his research on Oprah Winfrey’s final season to the national PCA convention in San Antonio in 2011.