Jimmy Fallon "Talks" Less Than Any of the Other People Who "Talk"
According to a new study, Jimmy Fallon spends less time talking—defined as the time spent talking to his guests—than anyone else in late night.
The study, performed by Stephen Winzenburg, a communications professor at Grand View University, presumably of his own will, shows that Fallon spends only 37 percent of the time "talking" in his Tonight Show, far less than Jay Leno or Johnny Carson, who each spent 51 percent. Here's the Hollywood Reporter with the rest of his findings:
Fallon spends about 21 percent of his time on his monologue (not considered "talk"), just as Leno did, but Fallon spends 23 percent on comedy bits and 14 percent on music, both significantly higher than what Leno was doing as host of the show.
With 37 percent of his show dedicated to talk, Fallon is way below his peers. Craig Ferguson is next lowest at 43 percent; Jimmy Kimmel is at 48 percent; Seth Meyers and David Letterman are each at 51 percent; and Conan O'Brien is at 53 percent.
Winzenberg doesn't try to hide his bias against Fallon's lack of "talk" (or the loss of Jay Leno's "edgy political humor"—uh-huh):
"Fallon may have made the changes to downplay his weak interviewing skills and better utilize his Saturday Night Live background. But he also abandoned the edgy political humor of prior Tonight hosts in favor of song parodies and celebrity beer pong." ... "His relatively small amount of talk time is closer to that used by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.... The Tonight Show has become successful by looking more like a comedy variety series than a traditional talk show."
Other late night hosts aren't reducing their own talk time, but maybe they should? Maybe we should all work on reducing our talk time.
Shhh. Isn't that nice? Shhhh.
[image via Getty]