After over two decades on The Tonight Show (and off and back on again), Jay Leno is stepping away from the late night franchise for a second time in February of next year, and his guest last night suggested to Leno on air that he moved to Fox. Sandler, who himself was let go from NBC's late night department in 1995, asked Leno, "So, Jay, retiring buddy?" Leno responded, "Well, we’re stepping aside" to which Sandler suggested, "You’re thinking about relaxing and I have a good idea for what Jay should do. Don’t you think he should just take it easy, enjoy, breathe, maybe go to Fox, do [...]
Comedian and author Jen Kirkman made her Tonight Show debut last night and wound up sharing her awesome fear of flying story for the 2% of Jay Leno's audience who didn't already hear it on Paul F. Tompkins's podcast. A venn diagram for the audiences of those two shows would overlap completely.

Sometimes TV shows drag their unfunny, uninteresting, yet highly rated feet across our living rooms for years. “Who let this happen?” we cry in vain. Other times, the powers that be get things right. That’s where Brilliantly Canceled comes in, looking at the shows that didn’t make it past their first season and saved us all a ton of grief.
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"Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor." — Horace
"Do you got a meat thermometer?" — Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase's time on Community ended last November after uttering that word in [...]

After NBC's official announcement yesterday that Jimmy Fallon will be taking over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in February of 2014, all of the late night hosts weighed in on the big news on their shows last night. Conan O'Brien, who was previously given the Tonight Show job in 2009 only to have Leno take it back a year later, broke his silence on the situation by congratulating Fallon without mentioning Leno. "I want to congratulate Jimmy, that is a really fun gig … Jimmy is the perfect guy to do it; he’s going to do a fantastic job. So congratulations Jimmy," commented O'Brien. Letterman took some [...]

Here's the opening of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, featuring a phone call between Fallon and Jay Leno that turns into a Broadway show tune. THR reports that this musical sketch was Fallon's idea and that his producers flew to LA to film Jay Leno's part after Leno signed off on it. It's hard to imagine Conan or Letterman being cool enough with Leno to do something like this during the last two late night wars in 2010 and 1993, respectively, even if it is a pretty harmless bit. It's definitely a sign that the Leno/Fallon transition is going smoothly and is a friendlier one than any [...]