Dick Cavett on Tonight Show transition: 'Fallon is on top of the world'

Jimmy Fallon debuted as the sixth host of NBC's The Tonight Show on Feb. 17, 2014. That same night, Dick Cavett, the former host of The Dick Cavett Show, joined Consider This host Antonio Mora to weigh in on whether Fallon could achieve the popularity of previous hosts of The Tonight Show, including Jay Leno and Johnny Carson.

"Jimmy [Fallon] is young, he's collegiate-looking in his way, as Johnny [Carson] always was. He's funny, he can ad lib — which is different from being just funny. I mean, it's in addition to what he can [do]. And he's a witty fellow and he's appealing. … There are more talents in Mr. Fallon — impressions, the voices, dialects, musical skill, a variety of kinds — and a damn good sense of how to handle a guest. He would never step on your punch lines, a terrible thing to happen."
— Dick Cavett, former late night talk show host

"I think you are asking me if there will be another 'King of the Night.' That was one of the books about Johnny [Carson]. … It might not be, we may have moved beyond that. Things are so dispersed now that there may not be any way of somebody 'killing' everyone else."
— Dick Cavett, former late night talk show host