Jay Leno: More "Tonight Show" Spoilers

CNN has more "Tonight Show" spoilers, including the fact that the show ended with Leno welcoming onstage "the children of people who met and started families while working at the long-running late-night show during his tenure."

"Jay said that's what he wanted his legacy to be," said Kevin Anthony of Miami, Florida. "His staff members, from stage managers to runners, who met, got married and had kids joined Jay on the stage and he took a picture with the 70 kids of those parents."

"Jay also thanked his wife," said Kathy Young of Los Angeles, "Jay said, when these kids are asked what was the 'Tonight Show' about, I want them to say, my parents met while working on the show and they had me. And that's what the 'Tonight Show' was all about."

The article also states that final guest James Taylor sang "Sweet Baby James." Here is our initial spoiler post, with monologue spoilers, and here is a transcript of Jay's interview with Conan.

Jay Leno: Final "Tonight Show" Spoilers

It's 6 PM Pacific time and Jay Leno has finished taping the final "Tonight Show." Talk Show News has been on the hunt for spoilers.

This AP report says that the show begins with a standing ovation for Leno (no surprise there). In his final "Tonight" monologue, Leno "thanked all the people who made the last 17 years possible—Michael Jackson, Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton." Interestingly, there was no mention of George Bush; a Center for Media and Public Affairs study released yesterday and quoted in the Financial Times showed that Leno "had told 33,331 jokes since taking over the show, of which 4,468 were about Mr Clinton, compared with just 2,999 jokes about George W. Bush."

Twitterer elaineewing repeats this joke: "When I started this show, my hair was black and the president was white."

Variety has more monologue spoilers, including this gag about another favorite Leno target over the years, O.J. Simpson: "I was cleaning my room today and I found O.J.'s knife," he said. "I had it the whole time!"

There was a rumor (wishful thinking?) making the rounds that David Letterman might make a surprise appearance -- looking at our web stats for the last couple days, a lot of people were Googling to find out if it was true -- but if that had actually happened, we imagine we would have heard about it by now.

As of this writing, we haven't been able to dig up any spoilers regarding Conan O'Brien's guest spot, but we'll keep an eye out.

Jay Leno: the Volkswagen to CSI's Cadillac

Noted car buff Jay Leno compared himself to a Volkswagen in the latest issue of Rolling Stone. Neil Strauss interviewed the departing "Tonight Show" host for the magazine's "Hot List" issue, which features a nude Lady Gaga on the cover -- despite that eye-catching image, of course Talk Show News noticed the headline "Jay Leno: The RS Interview" down by Gaga's left wrist. We haven't read the whole piece yet, but the magazine's blog features a few excerpts:

Leno is cautiously optimistic about his prime-time chances. Other observers are less generous — Sumner Redstone, whose Viacom owns CSI home CBS, went as far as to say that the crime drama would “beat the hell” out of Leno.

“Oh, that’s fine. I’m going to go with that one,” Leno says. “They will win. Hopefully we’ll catch them on the reruns. It’s like a Cadillac costs more than a Volkswagen, but if you sell enough Volkswagens, you succeed because of volume.”

Leno also states that he isn't going to give Conan O'Brien any advice. "His show has been number one [in its time slot] for the past 15 years. So I’m sure he’ll make that transition [to 11:35] fine."

Late Night Ratings: Gains for Craig, decisive victory for Jay

It's time once again to dive into the late night TV ratings race, with numbers courtesy of CBS and NBC (who, needless to say, each put their own rose-colored spin on things).

CBS is crowing about Craig Ferguson's gains in this year's May sweeps compared to 2008, when, of course, he was competing against Conan O'Brien instead of Jimmy Fallon: "In the May 2009 sweep, LATE LATE SHOW was up +8% in both households (1.4/05 compared to 1.3/05) and viewers (1.84m from 1.71m), +25% in adults 18-34 (0.5/03 from 0.4/02) and even in both adults 25-54 (0.7/04) and adults 18-49 (0.6/04) compared to last May." What that means in a direct comparison: during the just-ended sweeps period, Fallon was watched by 60,000 more viewers than Ferguson, while in May 2008, O'Brien had 260,000 more viewers than everyone's favorite Scot.

Let's turn now to the week of May 18-22, a period in which, let's admit, the Leno/O'Brien transition was getting approximately as much publicity as the last time a new Pope was elected: "For the week of May 18-22, Jay's average 1.860 million adults 18-49 topped the 1.151 million of Letterman; in total viewers, Jay's audience of 5.122 million persons beat Letterman's 3.241 million; and in adults 18-34, Jay's 735,000 out-scored Letterman's 419,000." (See our last ratings post if you want to compare those numbers to the week of May 11-15.)

At 12:35 AM, "Jimmy Fallon's 1.032 million adults 18-49 for the week out-delivered Ferguson's 680,000; in total viewers, Jimmy's 2.034 million beat Ferguson's 1.716 million; and in adults 18-34, Jimmy's 460,000 topped Ferguson's 277,000." That's an increase from last week, but not terribly surprising considering the strong lead-in from Leno's last late-night hurrah.

Here are the May 2009 sweep averages, again courtesy of NBC:

11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight," 5.0 million viewers
CBS "Late Show," 3.6 million viewers
ABC "Nightline," 3.8 million viewers

12:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 1.7 million viewers

12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," 1.9 million viewers
CBS "Late Late Show," 1.9 million viewers

1:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 1.1 million viewers

And a few cable numbers from the week of May 18-22:

Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, "The Daily Show," 1.5 million
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, "The Colbert Report," 1.0 million

Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 1.7 million
Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 1.0 million

With the Comedy Central bloc, we always feel compelled to throw in the caveat that each of those shows are repeated numerous times outside of their 11-midnight time period; Talk Show News knows plenty of people tune in for the morning or evening reruns, so total viewership of each episode is higher than the numbers above imply.

Jimmy Kimmel: Game Night specials to feature Eminem, Jack Black, more

Jimmy Kimmel will be taking his show into prime time during the basketball finals with his series of "Game Night" specials. The 30-minute broadcasts will feature celebrity guests Denzel Washington, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Michael Cera and Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade, and a special comedy segment "featuring Jimmy Kimmel as Eminem's next prodigy."

Since Kimmel and his crew will be focusing on the prime time shows, he will be airing several repeats in the 12:05 AM time slot (you can check out the full schedule here). Three new shows will air during the week of June 1 instead of the usual four, and during the week of June 8, there will only be two new 12:05 shows and three reruns.

The "Game Night" specials will air on the following dates/times (those of us on the West Coast will see Jimmy after the games):
Thursday, June 4 at 8:00 p.m. ET/CT
Sunday, June 7 at 7:00 p.m. ET/CT
Tuesday, June 9 at 8:00 p.m. ET/CT
Thursday, June 11 at 8:00 p.m. ET/CT
Sunday, June 14 at 7:00 p.m. ET/CT (if necessary)
Tuesday, June 16 at 8:00 p.m. ET/CT (if necessary)
Tuesday, June 18 at 8:00 p.m. ET/CT (if necessary)

Conan O'Brien: The Masturbating Bear lives!

One of the recurring "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" bits that most observers confidently suggested would not make the transition to 11:30 was the Masturbating Bear, but it looks like the Bear will indeed be doing his thing on "The Tonight Show," according to this New York Daily News report -- along with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and In the Year 2000.

"I think sometimes, especially in 2009, people can overstate the idea that there's a comedy barrier that separates 11:30 and 12:30 and that you'll ignite antimatter if you bring 12:30 comedy into the 11:30 hour," O'Brien said. "But DVRs have changed everything. The Internet has changed everything."

On his first week on the air: "It should be a fun week, but I have a rule which is, don't overthink this. My most important job is to think of funny things to do with my writers and enjoy this. What I've noticed is that when I'm really enjoying myself, it seems to be good television."

Meanwhile, Ain't It Cool News has published a fan's report of a test show, and reveals that Andy Richter will do his announcing duties while standing behind a podium -- no more sitting on the couch, as he did in his sidekick days. The fan was delighted with the new show: "Like many Conan fans, I was concerned the shift to 11:30 might soften the tone of the show. I'm happy to report, it's the same show you know and love."

Conan O'Brien: New show will be like a "high-end steak restaurant"

In an interview with TV Week, Conan O'Brien's exec producer Jeff Ross said the new "Tonight Show" will begin with a familiar theme: a reworked version of the "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" music. Writer Josef Adalian describes the song as "less manic" than the original rendition.

Ross also revealed that "James Wormworth, a frequent substitute performer in the old Max Weinberg 7, is joining the late-night show as a permanent member of the house band. The new group will be known as Max Weinberg and the Tonight Show Band."

The new "Tonight" opening will not feature animation, as the "Late Show" opener did. The goal of the new theme and titles are designed to give the new "Tonight Show" a "elegant feel," according to O'Brien: "I wanted it to look like a really high-end steak restaurant," he said. "I want people salivating when I'm in the monologue."