Jimmy Fallon: The New King of 'Late Night'

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Jimmy Fallon

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Almost a month earlier, Fallon's enthusiasm is palpable; he's like a kid with a shiny new talk show, and he wants everyone around him to be enjoying themselves even more than he is. Strolling through the SNL soundstage, Fallon is clearly proud of his new digs. ''We're getting our seats from Radio City,'' he says giddily, heading toward a nearby sound booth where he and Late Night's new announcer, Steve Higgins, are filming a webisode for the show's official site. Consisting of short segments, sometimes funny (Jimmy confronts his old high school bully!) and sometimes not (Jimmy gets LASIK surgery!), the webisodes, which debuted in December 2008, are Fallon's attempt to engage his fans and introduce himself to the youth demographic. Explains Michaels, ''I think probably 90 percent of the audience will discover him for the first time.''

For a sketch in which Jimmy introduces Higgins to viewers, the announcer, who's also an SNL producer, practices some potential opening lines for the show, including ''You loved him on SNL. You hated him in the movies. Now you're ambivalent. Please welcome...Jimmy Fallon!'' While many stars might shy away from mocking their own failures, Fallon has a good sense of humor about his aborted movie career. Taxi, an action comedy costarring Queen Latifah, managed a dismal $37 million domestically. ''I'd never done a movie,'' he says. ''You get makeup on at 6 a.m. Then it's one in the afternoon and they're like, 'We need you!' And you're like, 'I peaked at 11:30! Now you want me to be funny. This sucks.'''

Fallon followed up Taxi with the romantic comedy Fever Pitch, costarring Drew Barrymore. Pitch fared better with critics but petered out at the box office with $42 million. Still, there was a silver lining: Fallon fell in love with Barrymore's producing partner, Nancy Juvonen, and the pair married in December 2007. Unfortunately, it seemed Hollywood had broken up with Fallon, as the offers dwindled. ''My theory is he didn't just do hard comedies, the way Adam [Sandler] did or Will Ferrell did,'' posits Michaels. ''I think if he had done Billy Madison, he probably would have built his base, but I don't think that's who he is.'' For the record, aside from a cameo in this year's Whip It!, Barrymore's directing debut (also produced by Juvonen), Fallon says he's done with acting for now. ''Maybe a movie-of-the-week,'' jokes the star. ''See if Meredith Baxter is available.''

NEXT PAGE: ''Steve Higgins enters the room and announces that he's booked Marla Gibbs and Blind Melon for the first show. 'Who did you get for the second show?' asks Fallon.''