Critics: Better Luck Next Time, Jimmy

They're unimpressed, but ready to give him a chance
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 3, 2009 7:16 AM CST

The opening of the opening episode.
(Sisko41)

Critics weren’t wowed by last night’s debut of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon—but they were willing to cut Jimmy some slack for his “opening-night nerves.” Still, some noted, the show didn’t make good on its promise to be different.

  • “A typically stiff debut that nonetheless displays the host's charm and potential,” says Ray Richmond in the Hollywood Reporter. “Fallon is certainly talented enough to deserve a chance to make a go of it."

  • “He did an ultra-ordinary monologue—one liners about President Obama and the deficit that sounded like material Jay Leno's writers had faxed over from LA,” writes Ken Tucker in Entertainment Weekly.
  • “Fallon, he made sure to let us know Monday, will be putting us to bed with reassuring familiarity,” says Darel Jevens, Chicago Sun-Times.
  • "His major challenge in his new talk-show gig is to chill a little. Or even a lot," notes Frazier Moore for the AP.
(More Jimmy Fallon stories.)

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