With a late night shift on the horizon, Craig Ferguson is urging critics to give Conan O’Brien‘s successor Jimmy Fallon a chance.
CBS’s Late Late Show host told reporters at today’s Television Critics Association conference of his new competition, “I challenge you all to this. Give Jimmy a month before you review him. That would be fair, I think, because these shows are — nobody knows how he’s going to do…let’s be honest, who amongst you thought I’d be sitting here four years after the last time I talked to you? I would have given me a couple of weeks. I think you gave me less…And I think that we should give him a chance. I’d heard some negative stuff about Jimmy which I find a little surprising given the fact he hasn’t done anything yet. He’s kind of like the reverse Barack Obama. It’s like he hasn’t done anything yet, but everybody is commenting on his performance. Give him a chance.”
In addition, Ferguson doesn’t consider Fallon, who will take over NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien in March, competition.
“I think it’s a different audience,” he says. “I think Jimmy’s competition is Adult Swim. I don’t think it’s me.”