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

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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