The Tonight Show's Upworthy New Host

Jimmy Fallon gets ready to slow jam the laughs

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That may mean he is a safer choice for Tonight, but it's also a radical departure from recent late-show history. The late-night recipe has been three parts vinegar ever since David Letterman transformed the genre more than 30 years ago. On ABC, Jimmy Kimmel pranks his own audience with YouTube hoaxes. Even Leno, the middle-of-the-road antithesis of Letterman, made a signature bit out of getting dumb answers to current-events questions from people on the street.

The comedy of crankiness and critique can be hilarious, smart, even passionate (see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert). But it leaves a market opening for positivity. Fallon--who has made social media more central to his show than anyone but maybe Kimmel--has shown on TV what Facebook taught the online world: the power of the Like. Just as viral-media sites like Upworthy have hit it big by creating enthusiastic content that people of a wide range of ages and tastes feel O.K. sharing on their News Feeds, Fallon makes inclusionary comedy for millennials and their moms.

Does that mean he'll pull in ratings like Leno's? Almost certainly not over the long haul, because the mass late-night audience began rolling up the big tent long ago. Leno got lower ratings than Johnny Carson, O'Brien got lower ratings than Leno, and Leno, when he returned, got lower ratings than Leno 1.0. But if Fallon's infectious eagerness can go viral with a wide enough range of viewers, late night's freshly elevated sprinter could just make this a marathon.

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