Jimmy Failla falls to sleep each night watching “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson.
Yes, the late-night legend signed off in 1992, but YouTube and streaming services let fans relive his classic interviews.
“There’s a warmth to it … it’s exactly what I’m trying to bring back to late-night,” Failla says. And, so far, it’s working.
“Fox News Saturday Night,” Failla’s foray into the late-night market, just enjoyed its best ratings numbers to date after two-plus years on the air — nearly 1.8 million and 156,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo for the April 18 episode. That topped CNN’s airing of “Real Time with Bill Maher” in that 10 p.m. ET time slot. The latter, according to Fox News, drew 1,081,000 viewers and 97,000 in the 25-54 demo.
Failla doesn’t hide his right-leaning views, but he’s a far cry from Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and their liberal late-night peers.
You won’t see Failla bawling during his monologues, for starters. He’ll also take shots at President Donald Trump and other GOP darlings should their behavior warrant it. The focus is on laughs, not talking points.
“We’re playing ‘Steakhouse or Gay Bar’ and keg party crisis management skills [on ‘Fox News Saturday Night’]” he says, bits that don’t have a partisan bent. Failla adds, “The growth of the show is reflective of that.”
And while Colbert and Kimmel avoid right-leaning guests, Failla welcomes people across the political spectrum to the show, like Fox News pundit Jessica Tarlov, Democratic strategist Kevin Walling, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Viewers may see more of them soon.
It’s a continuation of a mission he started with the “Everybody Calm Down” podcast, which wrapped in 2019.
“At my core, I am a comedian. My reverence is for comedy, to be a source for centrist fun,” Failla says. He refuses to demean liberals or insist on ideological purity.
Jimmy Kimmel once told a reporter about his right-leaning fans, “<a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/5613062102001">not good riddance but riddance.”</a>
Not Failla. He calls himself an “In-activist” and wants no part of the culture wars.
“You shouldn’t have to vote a certain way to like the song &#8230; I was beating that drum before there was a major market for it,” he says, an approach that “gives you a shot at a much broader target.”
Failla calls the current late-night landscape “purposeful” comedy, with jokes designed to prop up a narrative or deflect from news that could damage Democrats. Chevy Chase made a career out of portraying President Gerald Ford as a bumbling fool, Failla notes, based on a clip of the world leader stumbling down a stairwell.
President Joe Biden, by contrast, stumbled up one repeatedly and late-night hosts either played it down or ignored it. The hosts, Failla suggests, asked themselves how that material could help or hurt their party’s cause.
“The cause should always be … funny,” he says.
Failla’s red-meat-free approach sometimes comes back to bite him. He recalls one late-night monologue that singed President Trump, and it generated fan blowback.
“I’m never watching you again … I didn’t know you were a liberal … RINO!” read a smattering of responses Failla saw on social media. He was heartened by one viewer’s response, though.
President Donald Trump praised the segment, calling him a “very funny guy.”
“When it comes to comedy, he’s the most adult person in the room,” Failla says.
This weekend, Failla is taking his “can’t we all get along” approach to Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner gala in Washington, D.C. for live coverage from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. on Fox News. He previously attended what’s comically dubbed “nerd prom” and yukked it up with the folks from the liberal “Daily Show” and NBC’s “Today.”
“My show is the ‘play nice in the sandbox’ show,” he says, adding Fox News will add a live text option so viewers can weigh in during the telecast. “People are very receptive to that idea.”
The live-text feature is one way he’s shaking up the staid late-night format.
“I’m trying to give the people at home the highest security clearance they can get and make them feel like they’re at the event,” he says.
Now, with his show’s ratings on the rise, Failla wants to expand on his bipartisan approach.
“We’ve established that we don’t need to be a viciously partisan show to draw a sizable audience,” he says. “That allows us to bring on more people you wouldn’t expect to see on the show.”
If that means California Governor Gavin Newsom drops by, so be it — even if Failla thinks the presidential hopeful is a “sociopath.” Prove me wrong, he says.
“Fox News Saturday Night” is hardly Failla’s only gig. He hosts the three-hour “Fox Across America” radio show, syndicated nationally, and he has a bustling stand-up career, too. The former New York City cab driver has found a system to juggle his gigs without dropping a single ball.
“It’s consistency of schedule,” he explains. “I’m a 48-year-old man who plays video games. I’m not the model.” There’s still a method to his hard-work madness. He doesn’t inject “drama” into processes that don’t impact the finished product. Plus, he embraces a “production model that makes the same things happen every day at the same time. You don’t feel the weight of doing them.”
That “weight” includes writing his own “Saturday Night” monologues, a task done by more than a dozen scribes in other late-night shows.
He has some unsolicited advice for his fellow late-night talkers. He suggests Jimmy Fallon pen his own monologues for “The Tonight Show,” leaning into his authentic, goofy self. Colbert’s final show is May 21, but Failla does share a tip for the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“Quit,” he cracks.
***
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. He&#8217;s also the host of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hollywood-in-toto-podcast-w-christian-toto/id1186449155">The Hollywood in Toto Podcast</a>. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>. 

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Jimmy Failla: Late-Night’s ‘Can’t We All Get Along?’ Guy