Fallon promises game premieres 'movie premiere' status

by Ben Gilbert on Feb 27th 2009 8:20PM

This Monday, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" begins and Conan O'Brien ascends the ranks of late nightdom into the much-vaunted "Tonight Show" position. Why is this exciting news for you, you ask? Because Fallon loves Felicia Day! Wait, no, that's not it. It's because Fallon, like Engadget's Josh Topolsky, is a big fan of comically oversized iPhones. Wait, that's not it either.

No friends, it's because, speaking with Canada.com, Fallon said, "We're going to treat a video game premiere as if it was a movie premiere. My generation grew up with the computer. We grew up with the Internet. We live in a video game type of world - video games are second nature to us. Games make more money, as an industry, than the film industry." He's certainly got a point. We'll be on the lookout for Mr. Fallon's promises on March 2nd, when his show premieres. And ya know, Jimmy, if you're ever looking for experts in the gaming field ... your friends at the 'Stiq are always available.

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Tags: engadget, Felicia-day, jimmy-fallon, josh-topolsky, late-night-with-jimmy-fallon, tech

Reader Comments (33)

It's about time the rest of the world started taking video-games more seriously as an entertainment....medium? (is that the right word to use). Either way, good news all round.

FALSE!

Fallon is unfunny compared to Conan.

Also this is going to be the end of joystiq! With news on video games on Fallons new show...joystiq will no longer be useful!!!!!!!!!!

That's pretty awesome.
It's just too bad Jimmy Fallon is an unfunny tool :(

Even more of a shame that we still have to deal with Leno's continued existence.
EVEN worse, we have to deal with only having Leno and Fallon till June 1st.

Conan, come poison Leno!

What do you mean stuck with only Leno and Fallon? Letterman could just shoot a duke on his show, talk about said duke with paul for an hour, and still be funnier than Leno.

Ehhh! He's certainly better than Leno, but he's surely no Conan!

Fallon: "How awesome is your game?"
Flack: "So awesome."

Just like movies!

Leno: "How great is Ghost Dad?"
Bill Cosby: "So great."

Of course, the other problem with Fallon's assertion is there aren't really celebrities involved with most games. And the ones that have celebrities are generally not the best ones.

He also has The Roots as house band, so this could be ok.

The Roots? I might have to actually watch this show.

THE MOTHERFUCKING ROOTS?!?!?!?!?!

HOLY ?UESTLOVE, BATMAN!!!!!

The banter between Jimmy Fallon and Black Thought is going to be excruciating.

Hell, is Black Thought even going to be part of this? I mean, how much can he rap in the two seconds of transition between commercials? What is he going to do as part of the backing band for musical guests, play cowbell? And does this mean The Roots aren't going to tour anymore? I mean, when Springsteen went back on tour, the whole band didn't have to leave with Max Weinberg.

Holy crap, that show just went from passively ignorable to epic disaster that affects my life.

I hope Conan's writers go with him to the tonight show, I'm worried he wont be as wacky or funny as he is and they'll make him tone it down for the leno audience

I watched the last ep. of Late Night with Conan, and he closed the show assuring the audience that his Tonight Show is going to be the same because he doesn't know how to not be wacky. I think the only thing missing from the new show is Masturbating Bear and Abe Vigoda.

You beat me to it Levi, about how Conan said that people were probably expecting him to "grow up" for the Tonight Show, but that he can't because the guy we saw on Late Night is the real Conan.

I read somewhere that Conan is bringing most of his crew to LA. Max Weinberg and the band are definitely coming. I don't think that Joel is coming along, though I wish he would. =(

yeah, Joel's not going, but Andy Richter is taking his place

the guys I'm worried about are the ones that do the sketches, you know, the red haired guy who most often plays the extremely racist/sexist ghost singer, the two guys at "Joe's" and all that.

so Fallon thinks that the G4TV audience are the only viewers going to be watching?

Nielsens don't care about video games and in turn won't care about Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

I hope he's happy with ratings of about 100,000.

yep, since only 100,000 people buy games.

It's a really clever idea, though whether it'll work out or not only time will tell. Late night hosts, unless they completely bomb, are generally around for many, many years. It seems out of the ordinary now, but the audience he is targeting with this idea is only going to keep growing. He could very well help shape the public's perception of games by treating them as any other mainstream form of entertainment. Of course, he could utterly fail, but it's good to know somebody is willing to take this shot.

He could have Ken Levine as a co-host and I still wouldn't watch the show. If I'm up that late watching TV, I'll be watching Craig Ferguson.

He could be bringing gaming into a better light, but I don't get it. Its hard to make gaming anything very entertaining in the standard media formats. G4, in general isn't that great. They have moments of clarity and epiphany, but for the most part I feel like I'm being talked to like an adolescent. Just get the standard Gamecrazy employees to hit me up, same experience.

I don't think it will work. I also still don't see how so many game companies are losing there asses. Film industry doesn't seem to be hurting, nor do actors.

I'm intrigued by the idea. I would definitely like to see developers and related industry people be interviewed by someone whose audience isn't almost entirely gamers. When stations like G4 or websites like Gamespot do interviews, you learn a lot, but you don't usually get a good feel of who the person is beyond their involvement in games. In this format, we'll learn more about the people too. As a budding game developer, I'm really interested in this.

The thing is: no matter how great a show about gaming is, it will never be more exciting than sitting on the couch watching somebody else play. I can't quite word that the way I want, but I'm trying to say that the absolute best a gaming show can hope for is the same level of excitement as watching somebody else play.

That is to say - not much.

G4 is incredibly guilty of speaking to its viewers like they are borderline retarded. Then again, I can't help but think that that's their target audience. Stories on whatever mindless shooter has the best graphics this month, followed by 3 minutes of advertising for AXE Body Spray.

dont forget cheaters or cops

Dark Wayne, nothing wrong with cops.

Zuburi- Nothing wrong with axe body spray, at least for borderline retards.

Nick, hope you're right. Not sure how good of an interviewer ol jimmy is, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to the same interviews. Just not sure the rest of America is.

Slightly off-topic, but relating to late-night television --

David Letterman is overrated and not funny.

That is all.

Holy Crap, you're stupid.

RankHypocrisy, I'm with ya buddy!

I swear I thought this guy was sidetalking. Crazy.

If my N-Gage was on my current network, I'd totally be sidetalkin' right now.

Fallon hasn't been relevent for years. Mainly because he isn't funny and can't keep a straight face. The only reason were talking about him now is because he likes video games, which is what was intended. Just another commercialy made tool forced down our throats, like Jonas Brothers and American Idol. They think we'll buy into anything they float out there, and we do.

Stephen Colbert. That's where its at.

Also, I am going to miss Leno at his normal spot. I know a lot of people don't think he is funny, but he is! And his new "10 o'clock" show..well that is going to be interesting. Does anyone know if Kevin Eubanks is going with him to that show? Kev is great!

While it's nice that video game premieres are being treated as well as film premieres. It's Jimmy Fallon! Come on!

Gamers don't watch tv. They are usually gaming during that time.

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Fallon promises game premieres 'movie premiere' status

Reader Comments (33)

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