‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ finale review: Garth Brooks, Billy Crystal, and surprises

There are very few occasions where we will actually sit down and review an episode of a late-night talk show, but “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” really is the exception more so than the rule tonight. For a final show, we really do think it’s appropriate to sit back and wonder: Did the producers really get things right?

In the end, the answer here is mixed. This show felt perfect as a send-off for Jay, and by that we mean that it contained the same problems that most of his show did. It was somewhat touching at times, but also hollow at others. The whole celebrity tribute part was the weakest, since Leno was never personal enough for us to really know just how close he was to any of these people in his time on the show.

Then, there were the emotional moments at the end that showed us a Jay that we wish that we saw so much more of during his tenure. He celebrated the fact that his show was “a union show,” celebrated his relationship with his crew, and also said that after losing his parents and his brother early on during the show, the people who worked on it became his family. This is why he never really considered going to ABC or Fox at any point when the going got tough and the rumors started up.

Will we miss Jay on the air? It’s complicated. We weren’t a fan for much of his tenure on the show, but we also do recognize how important his 20+ years on television are. Anyone who gets a job and keeps it for that long in this industry deserves respect. He is an institution, and we will celebrate him for that. We just wish that some of Leno’s celebrity cameos were more in line with his history, and not folks plucked out because of their current star power. Grade: B+.

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Photo: NBFC