I say "These numbers don't really matter" because Jay's competition last night was not the same as it will be next week. This week it's the end of Summer reality shows (like the aforementioned Big Brother), specials (like last night's Barbara Walters thing that I didn't even realize was on the air ... funny how you don't know what's gonna be on when you fast forward through all commercials and promos) and reruns.
Starting next week, just about all the 10 pm dramas from ABC and CBS will be new. Private Practice isn't back until the next week but Grey's takes up the 10 pm hour next week with a two-hour premiere that should blow everyone out of the water.
(And next week Jay doesn't get the two-hour Biggest Loser premiere, also running against Summer shows, as a lead in.)
So, among the curious viewers of Jay's first two nights was yours truly. I was of course confused because I was promised new comedy at 10 pm in all those promos and what I got was jokes from a guy whose hair is now completely gray. And the jokes matched the hair on the host.
And the thing with the people sitting in the audience getting to touch the garment of the host, can we do away with that for everything, not just Jay? Because that smacks of a kind of hero worship that I don't think is appropriate. He's a comedian, he's not the Dalai Lama or even Captain Marvel.
Of course, I've never been a fan of the Leno monologue, too many old hands on the script. What is the average age of the guys in the Leno writer's room anyway? I would try to do the math but when you click over the the Leno Show page at IMDB the writers aren't listed.
Other shows writing staffs are listed on the site. Not Jay's.
(Insert joke about how his writers still carve their jokes into stone tablets.)
More after the jump, including the only clip I found to laugh at, from Jim Norton.
The show is very formatted, too formatted in my opinion. Jay does a monologue, he brings out comedy guest (Dan Finnerty from The Dan Band in a location sketch too long by half the first night, Norton the second).
Then Jay has a guest (Jerry Seinfeld Monday, Michael Moore last night). Then another segment (the poorly thought out Kanye thing Monday followed by Jay-Z with Kanye and Rihanna, a poorly thought out celeb thing with Tom Cruise with Cameron Diaz last night), and then a Leno segment that he would have done after the monologue in the later timeslot -- headlines, visit neighbors in Burbank -- to end the show on a laugh.
You know, because it's "new comedy at 10."
Except that it isn't new at all.
Except the visiting neighbors in Burbank bit was obviously staged.
Except the Kanye apology made me cringe.
Except Dan Finnerty airhumping a nice woman from New York at the Lakeside Car Wash in Burbank and Jay in the studio is creepy.
Except no one told us what movie Tom and Cameron were shooting. Probably because it was a Fox film and NBC-Uni isn't into promoting other company's films in prime time even if they had no problem doing so in late night.
And, finally ... except nothing Michael Moore had to say last night on the show that promises "new comedy at 10," and Jay showed us all in the interview (the second clip below) that he has no real understanding of what non-partisan means.
In fact, let me take a moment to explain that to Jay and the rest of you ... the reason that Jay implied that Moore's previous films were more partisan than the current one -- Capitalism: A Love Story premieres wide on October2 and a week earlier in NY and LA -- is because Moore's previous films had no significant Democratic bad guys, just Republicans.
This movie casts Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, a Dem, as a bad guy along with others. For Jay, that means it's non-partisan. It means nothing of the sort of course. What it means is that everyone Dem and Rep and otherwise gets paid from the financial services industry, that's all.
In the previous movies it just happened that the bad guys were Republicans. Gun Control opponents (Bowling for Columbine), military-industrial complex (Fahrenheit 9/11) and auto industry (Roger & Me).
The 10 at 10 interview segment was so ill-conceived it was the first time ever I've seen Cameron Diaz look uncomfortable on camera, though it did seem she was more uncomfortable for her co-star than for herself.
I'm not a guy who's ever really been a fan of Jay's. I was always a Dave guy. Now I'm a Craig guy, thanks to the magic of digital video recording.
I feel like I did my due diligence, I watched a couple of them. I didn't like it.
I'm not watching more.
I'll continue to follow the ratings news and the impact to the TV industry but I'm done watching. There's too much good TV out there to be spending time on this.
This talk show (and it is a talk show, not "new comedy at 10") is better than Andy Cohen's Bravo half hour but not nearly as entertaining as the low-fi delights offered up daily by The Wendy Williams Show.
Jay at 10 is kind of like Jay at 11:35 ... except ...
... okay, except nothing.
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