It'll be hard — but not impossible — for Jimmy Fallon to outdo himself in 2015.
After all, the former NBC "Late Night" host replaced Jay Leno on NBC's "The Tonight Show" in February, celebrated his first Father's Day with daughter Winnie in June and turned 40 years old in September. Given all his accomplishments, Entertainment Weekly has aptly named Fallon "Entertainer of the Year."
Has Fallon stopped to smell the roses? "This is definitely the most exciting year of my life," the host explains. "The baby and the show are both starting and growing. It's interesting to raise both of them."
Far be it from Fallon to take all the credit for "The Tonight Show's" success, though.
"We honestly have the best human beings for this job possible. They're bleeding for the show," he says. "Everybody's at their A game." In fact, it reminds Fallon of one of his first major gigs. "They're amazing people on 'Saturday Night Live,' but I feel like we're equal, if not better, than that crew," the TV star explains. "Because 'Saturday Night Live,' they are truly magicians — but we're doing this five days a week."
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Because of his non-stop schedule, Fallon often forgets how cool his job is. "I don't ever really know what I'm doing until we have some time off or someone asks about it," the comic admits. "They'll say, 'You did a sketch with Carol Burnett on The Tonight Show.' And I'll be like, 'I did? That's right — I totally did that!'"
"It's so fast and hectic and busy," he says. "None of us really realize what we're doing as we're doing it."
Fallon says his ratings are "almost double" than those of Leno. "The show feels different," Leno explains. "It's young, it's music-oriented. He does stuff I couldn't get away with. At some point, you can't pretend to know all of Jay Z's songs anymore." Leno compares Fallon to Johnny Carson. "He's probably more like Johnny than any other host," he tells the magazine. "Johnny was very boyish when he was 40 years old."
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Still, Fallon says he could stand to become a better interviewer. And while many of the show's sketches have become even more popular thanks to YouTube, not all of them have worked. "We had a kayak race with Cameron Diaz, where we put wheels on the kayak," he recalls. "It was just OK. It didn't really work because I kept falling out of the kayak. She was a good sport, but we probably won't do that again."
Fallon hopes to surpass the viral success of "Lip Sync Battle with Emma Stone," which is at 36 million views and counting. "I've gotta beat Emma Stone at lip-syncing," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "That's my 2015 goal."
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
