Jimmy Failla falls to sleep each night watching ?The Tonight Show? with
Johnny Carson.

Yes, the late-night legend signed off in 1992, but YouTube and
streaming services let fans relive his classic interviews.

?There?s a warmth to it ? it?s exactly what I?m trying to bring back to late-night,? Failla says. And, so far, it?s working.

?Fox News Saturday Night,? Failla?s foray into the late-night market,
just enjoyed its best ratings numbers to date after two-plus years on
the air ? nearly 1.8 million and 156,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo for
the April 18 episode. That topped CNN?s airing of ?Real Time with Bill
Maher? in that 10 p.m. ET time slot. The latter, according to Fox News,
drew 1,081,000 viewers and 97,000 in the 25-54 demo.

Failla doesn?t hide his right-leaning views, but he?s a far cry from
Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and their liberal late-night peers.

You won?t see Failla bawling during his monologues, for starters. He?ll
also take shots at President Donald Trump and other GOP darlings should
their behavior warrant it. The focus is on laughs, not talking points.

?We?re playing ?Steakhouse or Gay Bar? and keg party crisis management
skills [on ?Fox News Saturday Night?]? he says, bits that don?t have a partisan bent. Failla adds, ?The growth of the show is reflective of
that.?

And while Colbert and Kimmel avoid right-leaning guests, Failla
welcomes people across the political spectrum to the show, like Fox
News pundit Jessica Tarlov, Democratic strategist Kevin Walling, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Viewers may see more of them soon.

It?s a continuation of a mission he started with the ?Everybody Calm
Down? podcast, which wrapped in 2019.

?At my core, I am a comedian. My reverence is for comedy, to be a
source for centrist fun,? Failla says. He refuses to demean liberals or
insist on ideological purity.

Jimmy Kimmel once told a reporter about his right-leaning fans, ?not
good riddance but riddance.?

Not Failla. He calls himself an ?In-activist? and wants no part of the
culture wars.

?You shouldn?t have to vote a certain way to like the song ? I was
beating that drum before there was a major market for it,? he says, an approach that ?gives you a shot at a much broader target.?

Failla calls the current late-night landscape ?purposeful? comedy, with
jokes designed to prop up a narrative or deflect from news that could
damage Democrats. Chevy Chase made a career out of portraying President
Gerald Ford as a bumbling fool, Failla notes, based on a clip of the
world leader stumbling down a stairwell.

President Joe Biden, by contrast, stumbled up one repeatedly and late-
night hosts either played it down or ignored it. The hosts, Failla
suggests, asked themselves how that material could help or hurt their
party?s cause.

?The cause should always be ? funny,? he says.

Failla?s red-meat-free approach sometimes comes back to bite him. He
recalls one late-night monologue that singed President Trump, and it
generated fan blowback.

?I?m never watching you again ? I didn?t know you were a liberal ?
RINO!? read a smattering of responses Failla saw on social media. He
was heartened by one viewer?s response, though.

President Donald Trump praised the segment, calling him a ?very funny
guy.?

?When it comes to comedy, he?s the most adult person in the room,?
Failla says.

This weekend, Failla is taking his ?can?t we all get along? approach to Saturday?s White House Correspondents Dinner gala in Washington, D.C.
for live coverage from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. on Fox News. He previously attended what?s comically dubbed ?nerd prom? and yukked it up with the
folks from the liberal ?Daily Show? and NBC?s ?Today.?

?My show is the ?play nice in the sandbox? show,? he says, adding Fox
News will add a live text option so viewers can weigh in during the
telecast. ?People are very receptive to that idea.?

The live-text feature is one way he?s shaking up the staid late-night
format.

?I?m trying to give the people at home the highest security clearance
they can get and make them feel like they?re at the event,? he says.

Now, with his show?s ratings on the rise, Failla wants to expand on his bipartisan approach.

?We?ve established that we don?t need to be a viciously partisan show
to draw a sizable audience,? he says. ?That allows us to bring on more
people you wouldn?t expect to see on the show.?

If that means California Governor Gavin Newsom drops by, so be it ?
even if Failla thinks the presidential hopeful is a ?sociopath.? Prove
me wrong, he says.

?Fox News Saturday Night? is hardly Failla?s only gig. He hosts the
three-hour ?Fox Across America? radio show, syndicated nationally, and
he has a bustling stand-up career, too. The former New York City cab
driver has found a system to juggle his gigs without dropping a single
ball.

?It?s consistency of schedule,? he explains. ?I?m a 48-year-old man who
plays video games. I?m not the model.? There?s still a method to his
hard-work madness. He doesn?t inject ?drama? into processes that don?t
impact the finished product. Plus, he embraces a ?production model that
makes the same things happen every day at the same time. You don?t feel
the weight of doing them.?

That ?weight? includes writing his own ?Saturday Night? monologues, a
task done by more than a dozen scribes in other late-night shows.

He has some unsolicited advice for his fellow late-night talkers. He
suggests Jimmy Fallon pen his own monologues for ?The Tonight Show,?
leaning into his authentic, goofy self. Colbert?s final show is May 21,
but Failla does share a tip for the host of ?Jimmy Kimmel Live!?

?Quit,? he cracks.

--
Democrats and the liberal media hate President Trump more than they
love this country.


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