The Next Late Night War: Stephen Colbert fueds with Jimmy Fallon

    The latest round of The Late Night Wars has begun. And already ended. On March 2nd, Ben and Jerry helped Jimmy Fallon celebrate the second anniversary of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon by presenting him with his own flavor of ice-cream, Light Night Snack. By Thursday night, Colbert was ranting on his show, The Colbert Report, that there was only room for one late night host inspired ice-cream, and his Americone Dream was the one. Fallon appeared on Colbert's show, and the two faced off.

      Fallon and Colbert argued. Among the best insults were Colbert's reference to Fallon's tendency to crack up during his sketches on Saturday Night Live, which almost made Fallon crack up, and Fallon reminding people that Colbert was in the movie Bewitched. Not exactly an insult, just a reminder. Then both called for their lead-ins to assist in the battle. Jon Stewart readily showed up with a baseball bat, but Fallon received only a phone call from Jay Leno (presumably; we didn't hear his voice) saying he couldn't make it. Not surprising, since Leno films his show in Los Angeles, and the other three hosts are New York City based. Stewart sulkily backed out of the fight, not having his own flavor, leaving Jimmy and Stephen to settle their disagreement by having an ice-cream eating contest.

     Predictably, this did not go well, as they were both soon overtaken by brain freeze, and transported to a cartoonish Ben and Jerry-themed world. The actual Ben and Jerry appeared in a cloud to save them from a killer ice-cream cone, and the hosts sang a song of friendship, effectively ending the feud when they agreed to be BBFSM - Best Friends For Six Months (Colbert didn't want to commit to forever). The lyrics were sweet (sic), full of puns, and a bit dirty in one verse. At the end of his show, Colbert congratulated Jimmy for his flavor.

     OK, so obviously their feud was fake. A stunt for late night television. But what in late night is not a stunt? I don't care if their beef was settled in ten minutes. What is important is that two really funny late night hosts got together (three, with Stewart's appearance) and made something worth laughing at. Stewart and Colbert had previously done bits with Conan O'Brien, which were fantastic, so I was pleased to see a return to that intermingling. Besides, it's more fun when the guys involved are actually enjoying themselves, rather than really fighting.

     The ice-creams themselves actually sound pretty similar. Both have a vanilla base with caramel swirled in. Colbert's edition contains chocolate covered pieces of ice-cream cone, while Fallon's boasts chocolate covered clumps of potato chip. Fallon's is likely to be a bit more salty. I'll have to check it out.

     Either way, kudos to both men (and Stewart) for providing some quality entertainment. The Colbert Report airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30 p.m. ET on Comedy Central, while Late Night With Jimmy Fallon can be found weeknights at 12:30 a.m. ET on NBC.

Article first published as TV Review: Stephen Colbert Fueds With Jimmy Fallon on Blogcritics.

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Leno Loses in Primetime

    For months now, the chronically unfunny (in my opinion) Jay Leno has hosted The Jay Leno Show five nights a week on NBC.  What is unusual about this late night talk show is that it airs in primetime.  NBC decided this year to give up ten o'clock five nights a week as a 'bold experiment', and it has failed big time.  Not for NBC, the network insists, as Leno is performing as expected.  Plus it costs them very little to make his show, versus five other, bigger budget programs.  The problem is the affiliates.

     NBC doesn't own most of the local NBC stations.  Affiliates began complaining that Leno was losing them viewers for their eleven o'clock newscasts.  This is very bad because advertisers pay top dollar to run spots during the news, and lower ratings mean less money.  The local affiliates count on that money to stay afloat.  Some threatened to pull Leno off the air, even before the show premiered, and in return NBC threatened to stop allowing them to air any NBC shows.  Things seemed to have settled once Leno began airing in the fall, but when November sweeps came back, the unrest returned.  NBC has backed down and agreed that on February 12th Leno will be leaving ten o'clock.

     The problem posed is that Leno still works for NBC and they have no desire to get rid of him.  However, Conan O'Brien is under contract to host The Tonight Show, and Leno cannot take it back.  Currently, NBC would like to air a shortened Leno from 11:35-12:05, bump The Tonight Show back to 12:05-1:05, and by extension, move Late Night With Jimmy Fallon back to begin at 2:05.  This would leave Last Call With Carson Daly out, as two a.m. belongs to the affiliates, though NBC has pledged to keep him at the network.  Currently, none of this moving around is finalized, other than Leno leaving primetime, but all involved parties are in talks to make it happen.

     So what would air at ten p.m.?  Suddenly NBC has five more hours to fill.  Top on the list are new episodes of Friday Night Lights, which has aired on satellite already, but NBC is allowed to begin airing as of March 1st, and had planned on bringing back soon anyway.  Also likely is the USA-aired Law & Order: Criminal Intent, an expanded Dateline, and another reality show or two.  Nothing is set in stone, and NBC could end up airing other shows from it's networks, including Bravo, USA, or even SyFy.

     What exactly will happen remains to be seen, but NBC is hoping it will all be worked out by February 12th.  This could shape up to be one heck of a battle, or a huge disappointment.