Curtains Close on Leno: ‘Tonight Show’ Host Delivers Final Late-Night Performance

The NBC host is being replaced by Jimmy Fallon

An Emotional Jay Leno Bids Goodbye to ‘Tonight’ (New York Times)

Johnny Carson’s departure from the “Tonight” show was an abdication. Jay Leno’s last show, on Thursday, was closer to a retirement party -- a bittersweet send-off for a loyal executive pushed out after 22 years.

“It’s fun to kind of be the old guy and sit back here and see where the next generation takes this great institution,” Mr. Leno said about his successor, Jimmy Fallon. More gamely than convincingly, he added, “But it really is time to go and hand it off to the next guy, it really is.”

Ratings in the last week soared, but it wasn’t that audiences were anticipating a train wreck or a cultural milestone. Many viewers weren’t feeling loss so much as pinpricks of projected anxiety: Mr. Leno’s emotional last bow was poignant not because he is a legendary figure who can never be replaced, but because he is the nice guy who worked really hard, did a great job and will barely be missed come Monday morning.

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