After so much talk about “The Jay Leno Show” reinventing the talk show format for primetime, reviewers are struck by how similar NBC’s new 10 p.m. weeknight program is to Leno’s tenure hosting “The Tonight Show.”
An early rundown from the critics ….
“The answer: No desk until the last five minutes. The question: What isthe difference between the new ‘Jay Leno Show’ at 10 p.m. and the former’Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ at 11:35 p.m.?” — The Gazette
“The menu of the new show is awfullyfamiliar … [and] an unsettled sense that they’re throwing things onthe wall to see what sticks.” — Hollywood Reporter
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“Without Kanye West, and his conveniently timed controversy from the MTV Video Music Awards, NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ premiere Monday would have been even more of a cut-rate,snooze-inducing, rehashed bore. If Leno’s desire is to help fans get tosleep earlier, desire satisfied” — USA Today
“Leno’s funny, but in the safest way. He’s adheres to the center of theexact middle road, so it’s wrong to expect a revolution here. He hasall the draw of buy-one-get-one-free smoothies. His comedy isbubble-wrap; its appeal needs no explaining. He goes with Dan Brownnovels and Marriott Rewards points and repeat viewings of the cinchyCBS crime procedurals he now finds himself programmed against: Whodoesn’t like all of those things?” — Washington Post
“The first ‘Jay Leno Show’ was reminiscent of nothing so much as atypical ‘Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ with … [though] superstars wereupstaged by what turned out, through pure dumb luck” — Kansas City Star
“There isn’t much difference between the new show and Jay’s ‘Tonight Show.’ There’s more comedy, though it’s of the bland, topical variety that Jay is known for…” — Newsweek
“NBC and Leno have delivered something pretty ‘Tonight’-like …they’re giving old Jay fans what they like … interspersed with enoughof Whatever Peopleare Talking About Today to get a churning drive-by audience” — Time
“Exactly like we all should have known it would be … If this is asgood as it gets with three months to work on it, what’s it going to belike once the night-after-night grind sets in? Or even more to thepoint, what’s Jay going to do without a Kanye West moment every night?” — Dallas Morning News
“It’s not a good sign when the Bud Light commercial is funnier than the comedy show it interrupts … his opening monologue seem[ed] like an attempt to cash in on the current vampire fixation — comedy of the undead” — LA Times
“The jokes felt familiar, the monologue, too. Someone, however, mightwant to alert Universal lot security: The couch was missing.Otherwise, what was so different between his last gig and this one, besides the hour?” — Newsday
More to come…
