"The Jay Leno Show" Review: Call Me Crazy, But I Like It

You’re welcome to tell me I’m crazy if you want to, but I like “The Jay Leno Show”…

And why wouldn’t I? I always loved “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and basically this is the same show.

And that’s where things get a little sad…

My biggest concern with the new show was that NBC would screw it up by trying too hard to make it different from the old show. But now it’s not different enough which just reminds us how much we miss Jay in late night and how badly he was screwed by NBC.

Sure, there were some different elements. The set was slightly different—but not in a good way. Whoever decided to have those dayglo colors behind Jay during his monologue have clearly never sat back and watched what it looks like. And all that glass was just pointless. I guess guests coming through a glass door is supposed to remind us that this is not “Tonight.”

The intro was different—and again not in a good way. The announcer was cheesy and actually made me miss John Melendez. And I love Kevin Eubanks and am so glad that he’s back, but what was that theme song? It didn’t even have a tune! The pictures of Jay through the years were cute, but the rest of the intro was just one big mess.

The timing of the show was also different as the comedy bits were spread throughout the hour with the trademark bit—in last night’s case, Headlines—coming at the end to lead into the late local news. But some of the stuff was stretched out way further than it should have been—mainly the Dan Finnerty bit that started out funny but then just got so painful I almost turned the channel.

And the desk was gone, which I thought made Jay look totally uncomfortable. But maybe that was just me.

But the rest was the same. And call me crazy, but I think this could just work…

Jay’s audience is not young people—although they gave him an enthusiastic welcome last night (I wonder what NBC was pumping through that studio?). Jay’s audience is the older crowd. The ones that watch the monologue and then turn off the TV to go to bed because they have to go to work the next day. With Jay at 10, they can watch the whole hour, catch the late local news and then go to bed.

But of course, if that happens, there is no reason for people to stay up late and watch “The Tonight Show with Conan O’ Brien” and “Leno” will end up completely destroying Conan’s ratings…

And wouldn’t that just be devastating…

I still, by the way, can’t believe Jay went there last night and asked Kanye West if his mom would be disappointed in him (I really wanted him to go with his classic Hugh Grant question, “What the h—l were you thinking?”). And I have no idea how Kanye’s anger over his mother’s death made him jump on stage and tell the world that Taylor Swift didn’t deserve her award, but God bless him for showing up and helping Jay out.

And clearly Jay returned the favor by trying to make Kanye look human. Not sure it worked, but Jay sure tried…

I feel quite confident that “Leno” produced a pretty solid rating last night, but I hope someone is telling the NBC publicity department that this thing is far from over. It will be one of the most interesting stories of the TV season…

“The Jay Leno Show” airs weeknights at 10 p.m. on NBC…

And be sure to share your thoughts on the premiere...

Photo Credit: NBC

UPDATE: “The Jay Leno Show” brought in 17.7 million viewers last night, which is darn good. And let me take a minute and congratulate the NBC publicity department for showing real restraint in their press release and not declaring Jay the king of anything…