I recently came across this post on social media’s impact on the popularity of TV shows. The article takes the case of Jimmy Fallon, whose debut on the Late Show in Mar 2009 was the best debut in recent times for a late night show. The post says, “Fallon’s ratings have leveled off a bit in the three months since his debut, but he still managed to win his time slot in 53 of his first 55 nights, and holds a 69% ratings advantage over Craig Ferguson (his competitor in the time slot) in the valuable 18-34 year old demographic.”
The post goes on to talk about how Fallon increased his number of followers on Twitter from just under 7k at the beginning of this year to over a million today.

LateNightWithJimmyFallon.com promises to be “a destination site for the funniest stuff on the web, [with] original comedy brought to you by both our bloggers and the show’s writers, and of course behind-the-scenes stuff that you can’t find anywhere else.”

So far, the blog has some YouTube videos, a blog post about the bacon explosion (ew), and of course, show-related tidbits.  I love how they ask for viewer/reader feedback, like they did here with the Lick It For Ten: Lick What? post.  It’s a great way of engaging the audience and actually making them feel a part of the community and show.  Plus – if you have a segment that’s lame (or awesome!) you’ll know if you should nix it (or do more!)  It’s like a cleverly-disguised focus group complete with glasses and a moustache.

A blog that encompasses the whole “TV show blog” concept very well is VH1’s Best Week Ever blog, which according to Compete.com gets an impressive 377,000 unique visitors per month.  The blog is regularly updated with snarky and witty commentary on pop culture.  I have to admit I’m a regular visitor to the site – but haven’t watched a full episode of the show in years.  So maybe this is a case of a blog overshadowing a show and being too awesome for its own good.  Who knows. But let’s face it – you gotta give credit to a blog that has found a way to make Blingee appealing to an audience other than MySpace-lovin’, glitter-aficionado 13-year-olds.

If done right, LateNightWithJimmyFallon.com will be an entertaining extension to its late night TV counterpart.  People will check it at work and when they have down time while on the bus or waiting in line at Starbucks.  Plus – if people go there as a result of a cool blog post totally unrelated to the show and see – oh hey, Tina Fey is on tomorrow – they may be encouraged to tune in or DVR it.  Or do neither: the blog showcases full episodes.  Thumbs up to NBC!

Only time will tell if the Jimmy Fallon blog is worth visiting, but I did some detective work and found that two of the bloggers – Sara Schaefer and Cory Cavin – are both Best Week Ever blog alums.  So, I can only hope that the BWE brilliance will transfer over to the new blog – it would be like the BWE blog had an awesome baby with Jimmy Fallon.  Something like that.