No frenemies here!
The Tonight Show's Jimmy Fallon finally dished on what it's like to be competing with friend, fellow comedian, and new host of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert. The two are now up against each other in the same 11:30 p.m. slot on rival networks.
While some may suspect blood in the water, Fallon remained ever the gentlemen when faced with this difficult question from Ellen DeGeneres.
"We all are friends. I'm not competing with you so we don't have that competitive nature, but if you're up against your friend. How does that feel?" she probed. Without hesitation, Fallon had nothing but compliments to pay his Hollywood pal.
"Well, yeah it's interesting I mean he's just as you know one of the nicest guys out there. So I think the more the merrier. I think it just brings more attention to late night. It gets more people watching TV in general. So I think we all win. I mean there's room for everybody, " Fallon said.
The answer was so diplomatic, even Ellen told him he had done a fine job with the response. But, Fallon didn't stop there, insisting that Colbert really is a swell guy.
"There's so many channels and so many different people and personalities and different tastes. The more the merrier I love the guy he's a good guy!"
While there may not be any bad blood between the competitors, there is certainly competition in the metrics. When comparing the ratings of each of the show's season premiere episodes on Tuesday, Colbert blew the competition out of the water. The show debuted with 6.6 million viewers tuning in—an impression number compared to Fallon's 2.92 million and Jimmy Kimmel's 1.75 million.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)