Late-night talk shows have always been a place for experimentation. The safe-harbor time slot has allowed hosts like David Letterman and others to try weird visual tricks, goof around and generally be outlandish — all on network TV.

However, there’s a general attitude that once Johnny Carson left the “The Tonight Show” in 1992, the culture of playfulness left the genre.

NBC’s late-night programming will receive a boost of fresh energy during the next week when Jimmy Fallon takes over “The Tonight Show” and Seth Meyers starts as host of “Late Night” the week after. NBC and its new hosts plan to reinvigorate late night and boost ratings with lively energy, bring the know-how to make segments go viral outside of the timeslot and extend the “Saturday Night Life” alumni network to dominate late night.

Young, high-energy guys like Fallon, and even Jimmy Kimmel, have the ability to make their late-night segments go viral and distribute their content to the audience that might not stay up to see them. This ability is incredibly important because it brings in viewers that might not watch otherwise.

The size of this new audience is evident in Fallon’s ratings. During its last week on air, “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” jumped 27 percent in ratings. When he hosted “SNL” back in December, the show averaged 13.12 million viewers. On Monday’s premiere, Fallon garnered a rating of 7.1 on the Nielsen scale, 80 percent higher than the combined ratings for competitors Letterman and Kimmel, according to an article by Variety.

Even though Letterman and Leno have been in the game for a while, audiences want younger, more pop-centric hosts to deliver content they can relate to.

Fallon’s first “Tonight Show” was studded with high-profile celebrities from Robert DeNiro to Lindsay Lohan, along with A-list guests Will Smith and U2. One segment, “The Evolution of Hip-Hop Dance,” has already gone viral. The three-minute segment, featuring Fallon and Smith doing the cabbage patch and twerking, had more than a quarter of a million views on YouTube as of Tuesday morning. With a start like this, the future of “The Tonight Show” is bright.

If “The Tonight Show” maintains its excitement and ratings stay high, Fallon will offer a comfortable lead in for Meyers. Both hosts on NBC come from “SNL.” This is another tactic to bring in a different kind of audience and get people to stay up on weeknights. To top it off, Meyers’ band will be led by another “SNL” veteran, Fred Armisen.

Most hosts agree that having a good band is key to keeping a show moving. But it’s also important for hosts and bands to build a rapport with each other and to be relaxed with each other, according to Variety. Many question Armisen’s credentials because he is better known as a comedian on “SNL” and “Portlandia” but he’s been in a few well-known bands over the years, including his gig as the drummer for the band Trenchmouth. What’s more important is that Meyers and Armisen are comfortable and can build off each other. It’s already hard to host a show that has had success in the past without the comfort of friends.

Although “The Tonight Show” is a 60-year-old institution, the television landscape has done a complete 180-turn since the days of Steve Allen and Johnny Carson. Traditional time slots matter less and the segments people elect to watch online and aforementioned viral tenacity matter more. Hosts like Fallon and Meyers will hopefully deliver for a generation that lives online and in the moment.

Cassie-lee Grimaldi is a senior television, radio and film major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and reached on Twitter @cassiegrimaldi.

Published on February 19, 2014 at 2:48 am