• Jimmy Fallon's 'Tonight Show' transition dominates late night monologues

    By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

    Wednesday's announcement that Jay Leno would be stepping down from "The Tonight Show" hosting duties on NBC to make room for "Late Night's" Jimmy Fallon in Spring 2014 clearly had the staffs of every late night show scrambling to rewrite their opening monologues -- because everyone had something to say!

    First, there was the back-patting; this transition is being done with an air of friendliness that did not necessarily characterize the one that brought Conan O'Brien into "Tonight's" seat for a few months in 2009.

    "He is a hell of a guy!" said Leno last night to his audience about Fallon. "He's going to do a great job. I just have one request for Jimmy: We've all fought, kicked and scratched to get this network up to fifth place. Now we have to keep it there! Jimmy, don't let it slip into sixth! We are counting on you."

    Over at "Late Night," Fallon acknowledged that his shift was the big news of the day: "Hello! Welcome!" he began. "This is 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' -- for now," he said. "You guys probably heard the news -- I’m going to be taking over 'The Tonight Show' next February! But don't worry. Until February, our focus is right here on whatever this show is called."

    Added Fallon, "I want to thank everyone here at 'Late Night,' the staff, the crew and, of course, The Roots. I have to say thanks to Jay Leno for being so gracious. It means so much to me to have his support. I just want to thank the fans for staying up to 12:35 a.m. and watching us." 

    Over on the other networks, former "Late Night" host David Letterman played up the story for laughs on CBS' "Late Show." Letterman was notoriously angered not to have been offered the "Tonight" show gig himself in 1992 when Leno was tapped, and that feud hasn't faded over the last 22 years. 

    "I got a call from my mom today," said Letterman, who also devoted his Top 10 list to Leno. "She says, 'Well, David, I see you didn't get 'The Tonight Show' again."

    Leno wasn't about to let it go unsaid, either, quipping, "Folks, I got to be honest with you, I had a really awkward day today," he said in the opening. "I had to call David Letterman and tell him he didn't get 'The Tonight Show' again. Awful! Terrible!"

    The Hollywood Reporter noted that Letterman also referenced the O'Brien issue, questioning not Fallon but the choice to make another switch: "Didn’t we just go through this?" he said. "Jay Leno now is being replaced, and this is the second time this has happened. I mean, it’s crazy. He’s being replaced by a younger late-night talk show host -- what could possibly go wrong? Honestly. They had pretty good luck with this in the past."

    Speaking of O'Brien, he also addressed the topic around the 30-minute mark of his TBS show "Conan." "I want to congratulate Jimmy. That is a really fun gig." His audience laughed, and he followed up: "You laugh, he said, but it really is. Jimmy is the perfect guy to do it. ... He's going to do a fantastic job. So congratulations, Jimmy."

    The one broadcast late night host who doesn't have any dog in this race, Jimmy Kimmel, also had something to say. 

    "It is a big one for the world of late-night television," said Kimmel in his "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" monologue on ABC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "As you probably heard -- it was announced officially today -- that, starting in February of next year -- after the Olympics -- I will take over as new host of 'The Tonight Show.' I spoke to Jay on the phone today." A member of his staff interrupted. "Excuse me for one moment. ... OK. Um, apparently it was a different Jimmy."

    He read one of the headlines about the changeup on his cell phone and added, "Turns out I will not be hosting 'The Tonight Show.' Does anyone know what the return policy is on yachts?"

    In the end, though, it was largely friendly banter and Fallon's ascension to the throne (which will move, along with the show, to New York City), seems to have gone over well. But Leno had one last warning: "NBC says in five years, they plan to replace Jimmy with Justin Bieber," he said. "They are moving too quickly!"

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  • Stephen Colbert despairs, Jon Stewart rejoices in presidential election results

    By Mike Berman and Randee Dawn, NBC News contributors

    Election night was not a good evening for "The Colbert Report's" Stephen Colbert, who showed up Wednesday night face-down on his desk, wearing his red (natch) bathrobe, tossing around popcorn and cracking open a beer. It was a far cry from the crowd dancing he did following the first presidential debate.

    “What are you people doing here? Shouldn’t you be out celebrating?” he asked his audience. “Because evidently you don’t listen to anything I say!”

    But things went as well as could be expected for "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart, who saw President Obama re-elected and the Democrats pick up a couple of seats in the Senate.

    But if there was one downside, it was that his live show that evening prevented him from watching how the folks at Fox News handled themselves watching their nightmare come true. Still, Stewart did riff on how the network he calls “Bulls--- Mountain” spent the night and its aftermath, and it was worth waiting for.

    Unsurprisingly, he showed clips of Karl Rove’s desperate attempts to un-call Ohio for Obama, and Fox anchor Megyn Kelly’s challenge to Rove, “Is this just math that you view as a Republican to make yourself feel better, or is this real?”

    “Did you see this? Did you record this? Did you TiVo it? Because you can play it back and forth like I did today,” Stewart said. “Here’s what happened. I just want to get it straight Karl, very quickly. Are you lying to yourself? Or to the millions of viewers? Because you’re lying.”

    And Stewart found Kelly’s comment notable in another way, suggesting to the network’s executives that "'Math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better' is a much better slogan for Fox than what they have now.”

    Stewart also examined what happened in the hours after the election, when the Fox News team looked at the shattered remains of their election map and attempted to make some sense of what happened.

    First came the predictable excuse that many voters, clearly more than the 47 percent Mitt Romney dismissed in that infamous campaign-event-turned-viral-video, took advantage of the chance to line their pockets at the expense of the selfless, wealthy job-creating class.

    “What an incredible story to tell yourselves. ‘We would have won, if not for the moral failings of the non-real Americans,’” Stewart said. “Last night minorities, who feel entitled to things, came away and took the country away from the self-sufficient white Medicare retirees and upper class tax avoidance experts, or as they’re also known, ‘your audience.’”

    Fox also blamed negative campaigning from Obama, and the smearing of Romney’s record. Of course, much of the attacks were originally made by Romney’s rivals in the primary, causing Stewart to note, “This election wasn’t murder. It was auto un-erotic asphyxiation.”

    Finally, the network tried to treat the results as something less than a mandate, a confusing approach given the lopsided nature of the electoral college results, particularly if Florida is called for Obama once the results are finally tabulated.


     “Yes, let this resounding victory by Barack Obama be a lesson to the president. If you don’t moderate your positions, you may not win that third term!” Stewart said.

    Nate Silver, the man of the hour in the data-driven community, was Stewart’s guest on Wednesday’s “Daily Show.” Silver came under fire from the right when his "FiveThirtyEight" blog predicted an overwhelming likelihood of an Obama victory at a time when the conventional narrative was that this election would be “razor tight,” whatever that means.

    Considering the results went almost exactly as his analysis predicted, however, a lot of those critics owe Silver an apology.

    “Don’t you want to stand up and go ‘I am Nate Silver! Bow down to me! I am Nate Silver, Lord and God of the Algorithm?” Stewart asked.

    Silver demurred, perhaps because his blog wasn’t perfect. It did call that North Dakota senate race wrong.

    Meanwhile, over on the broadcast networks, David Letterman noted during his "Late Show" monologue, "Well, it's over. And as usual, the guy from Kenya won." Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" congratulated President Obama on his re-election, and noted there was hope for the GOP since depression "is covered by Obamacare."

    And "Late Night's" Jimmy Fallon (whose dog is not apparently to be trusted with predicting presidential race winners) trotted out his Romney character one more time, chatting on the phone with "President Obama," who noted that he had done well with the Latino vote. "Which is odd, because 80 percent of Latinos work for me," said Fallon/Romney.

    "I'm just going to focus on the good times," said Romney/Fallon. "Remember that first debate?"

    "Obama" replied: "Yep. You remember ... right now? Ha! Burn notice!"

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  • Mindy Kaling talks kissing, 'sexually harassing' co-stars on 'The Mindy Project'

    By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor

    Prime-time power comes with perks, according to the star and creator of "The Mindy Project." On Tuesday night's "Conan," Mindy Kaling admitted that she gets a bigger kick out of on-screen kisses now that she's in charge of casting the men she locks lips with.

    "On 'The Office,' I had to kiss people and things like that, but on this show, there's like full-on, roll-around make-outs and stuff," Kaling explained. "And so, I get to cast those people."

    And sometimes she gets to make those people a little uncomfortable, too.

    "When I'm rolling around and making out with someone, in my experience, I don't do that that often where I'm not saying something like, 'I love you,' to them," she said of her real-life experiences. "So it's very hard. I have to not say (that) ... to the actor I'm doing that with, cause it really creeps them out."

    But that's not the only thing that creeps out her on-screen partners.

    "When you kiss in real life, when you are feeling passionate, you use your tongue," she said. "But on TV, you're not supposed to use your tongue. You fake it."

    Sure you're not supposed to, but Kaling admits she sometimes forgets that all-important tongue rule.  


    "Yeah, and when I do it on the show now, it's like the worse kind of sexual harassment because I'm like the boss," she joked. "And they're scared to complain because I'll fire them."

    See Kaling's kisses for yourself on "The Mindy Project," Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on Fox.

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  • J.J. Abrams premieres clip from 'Star Trek' sequel on 'Conan,' but keeps it short

    By Aaron Couch, The Hollywood Reporter

    Here’s some news that should have "Star Trek" fans champing at the bit: director J.J. Abrams premiered the first clip from his upcoming "Trek" sequel on TBS' "Conan." But it’s short … really short.

    “It’s got to be really short,” Abrams said of studio Paramount’s instructions to him. “It can’t be longer than three frames,” he claimed his bosses told him.

    STORY:  "Star Trek" star Karl Urban reveals possible sequel villain

    But Abrams told Conan O'Brien those three frames are indeed from "Star Trek Into Darkness," the heavily guarded follow-up to his 2009 "Trek" reboot.

    “This is a scene where Spock … for reasons that you’ll have to see the film to understand, is in a volcano in this crazy suit.”

    "Star Trek Into Darkness" is slated for a May 17, 2013, release and reunites the Enterprise crew from the 2009 film (including Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and Zoe Saldana) and adds "Sherlock" star Benedict Cumberbatch in a villain role still shrouded in mystery, even though the movie has wrapped.


    Watch the video. The clip begins (and ends) at the 1:51 mark. 

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  • Conan O'Brien fires up the Olympic slow-mo camera, gets messy

    By Cody Delistraty, NBC News

    From McKayla Maroney's near-perfect vault to Michael Phelps' finger-tip finishes, slow-motion replay cameras at the Olympics have added an extra level of excitement.

    On Thursday’s "Conan," Conan O’Brien noted how cool athletes at the games look when they’re shown in super slow-motion. Rather than wallowing in his own non-Olympian uncoolness, the late-night host decided to rent a slow-mo camera for himself.

    “Pie serves,” “human sundaes” and “air hose” were just a few of the ways that he and sidekick Andy Richter abused their bodies in super slow-mo. And while their shenanigans probably aren’t Olympic worthy, with that many ruined shirts and suits, the dry cleaner certainly deserves a gold.

    Check out the video: 

     

    What would you record with a slow-mo camera? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

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  • The secret to Christina Hendrick's sexy success on 'Mad Men'? Her underwear

    TBS

    "Mad Men" star Christina Hendricks shared her sexy, on-screen secret on "Conan" Thursday night.

    By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor

    If you've ever wondered just what the secret behind Christina Hendricks' sexy look on "Mad Men" is, then wonder no more. The woman who brings Joan Holloway to life has revealed that it's all about what she wears underneath those sleek '60s fashions -- era-appropriate underwear.

    OK, obviously, Hendricks' sexy look has a heck of a lot to do with what she's packing before she ever hits the wardrobe department. But in an interview with Conan O'Brien, she gave plenty of credit to her supportive foundation garments.

    "Everything is incredibly authentic and meticulous," Hendricks said of the show's clothes. "We have the full undergarments and the slips and the thing over that. It's a little bit of work to get dressed."

    But it's worth the work. After all, those form-fitted under layers are what give Hendricks her on-screen wiggle.

    "You put these things (on) and they sort of make you stand upright and your body just naturally moves a certain way. I always thought that's what made this sort of walk happen -- you put these undergarments on and this tight dress. My husband teases me and says I walk like that at home as well, but I attribute it to the undergarments."


    See what you think of Hendricks' wardrobe and her walk when "Mad Men" airs Sunday night at 10 p.m. on AMC.

    Do you think it's really the underclothes that give Hendricks' her sexy look? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

     

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