Jay Leno is taking it to The Man, and he’s getting a nice ratings boost as a result.
The worst kept secret in Hollywood is NBC plotting to replace Leno with Jimmy Fallon as host of The Tonight Show. Leno isn’t taking the news lightly. He’s been lobbing verbal grenades at both the network and NBC executives via his nightly monologue, calling his bosses “snakes” and the network itself, during last night’s monologue, “a big number two.”
The public seems to like the new, feistier Leno.
Leno saw his best total viewership in almost two months, hitting a four-week high in the adults 18-49 demographic for the week of March 18-22. That’s when Leno took some of his best shots at NBC brass over the network’s fortunes and their handling of the Fallon reports.
If this keeps up, Leno should have less difficulty finding a new late-night gig once NBC completes its plan to make The Tonight Show ready for the much younger (and untested) Fallon.