jimmy fallon replacing conan obrien

Jimmy Fallon's first week on the job wasn't great, but it had some promising moments that showed the former SNLer was capable of doing good if he could just get comfortable in his new pad.

Fallon's exuberance for the job shined through, but his nerves sometimes seemed to get the best of him. That's natural. If I was the face of a multimillion dollar television show beamed to hundreds of thousands of people every night, I would consider my work a success if I could get through each show with a clean pair of shorts.

The host has come a long way in the last three months. He seems less nervous and more comfortable as the captain of Late Night, and it has made him and his show funnier. The cleanliness of his shorts are not known. I don't know anyone that close to Fallon's staff.

Jimmy Fallon might not be the next Conan O'Brien yet, but he's no Carson Daly either.

He's a 'Saturday Night Live' vet, a Grammy nominee, a three-time host of MTV Movie and Video Music Awards shows and, yes, even a 'People' magazine's 50 Most Beautiful alum. So why wouldn't Jimmy Fallon be a good heir to Conan O'Brien's 'Late Night' throne?

It obviously takes more than some comedy roots, a love for all things pop culture and a head of fiercely gravity-defying hair to captain a late night talk show, but who's to say Fallon doesn't have that same magic touch that made O'Brien such a cult favorite ...

While we're not placing any bets for or against Fallon's post-midnight success, we do feel qualified to plead his case to any total naysayers out there. So, without further ado, may we present the five reasons we think Jimmy Fallon could possibly be better than everyone thinks he'll be -- and maybe, just maybe, make this whole late night thing work. -- By Maggie Furlong