A few days after we all flip our calendars to December, it begins: the year-end best and worst of everything lists that pop up in nearly every major publication. It only makes sense that Entertainment Weekly would be leading the pack with its selections of the biggest hits and most epic fails of the year. Its selection for the 2014 Entertainer of the Year is Jimmy Fallon, and really, can anyone even begin to offer up a valid argument against EW's selection?
Fallon took over The Tonight Show's hosting duties from Jay Leno just as the Sochi Olympics were wrapping up, and he kind of did the unthinkable. Fallon's ratings were really high for his first few nights at the helm of The Tonight Show, and then they got better. Not even a year into his new gig and his ratings are better than Leno's were even in his much-hyped final weeks on NBC.
So what is the secret to Fallon's groundbreaking success?
That is easy to identify. Fallon has made late night fun again. It is no longer about what the guest lineup looks like on any given night because Fallon is actually the entertaining force that makes people tune in, and he is the glue that makes it all work. Then there are the crazy games that Fallon plays with his guests that usually end up going viral the next day. Instead of being at their classy best, Fallon manages to make his guests get real and sometimes even dirty.
It had been more than 50 years since Barbra Streisand set foot on a late-night stage until she decided to grace Fallon's The Tonight Show with her presence, and even she was willing to play around with him. Getting Streisand to end her boycott of late-night no-shows is probably worth an award in and of itself, right?
Do you agree with EW's picking Fallon as 2014's Entertainer of the Year? If not, who do you think is more deserving and why? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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