A new era of television has dawned with the ascension of Jimmy Fallon to host “The Tonight Show,” one of the most cherished and beloved traditions in TV history. Fallon succeeded Jay Leno, who just finished his second turn as host of “Tonight” earlier this month, ending his 22 year reign as the king of late night.

The show started with a revamped opening directed by Spike Lee with music provided by The Roots.

Fallon began his monologue with a quick introduction about himself to his newer viewers, and some self-deprecating jokes about how he’s the host “…for now.”

“My goal is to put a smile on your face,” Fallon said right before he restarted with a real monologue that included jokes about current events. He even brought his “superlatives” bit from “Late Night,” which poked fun at Olympians.

While the monologue was longer like Fallon said he intended, most of it was his introduction. Time will tell if his monologues will be longer than his “Late Night” ones.

When Fallon moved over to his desk, a long line of celebrities came out handing $100 to him to hold up their side of a bet saying he would never be host of “Tonight.” Celebrities included Lady GaGa, the great Tina Fey; Stephen Colbert (who gave Fallon a bucket load of pennies and posed for a selfie), Mike Tyson, Kim Kardashian, Robert De Niro, former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani (who thanked Jimmy for bringing the show back to its home) and many others.

Fallon also continued the viral worthy “Evolution of…” series with the latest being “the Evolution of Hip-Hop Dancing” with Will Smith joining Fallon. This is pretty good indicator that this version of “Tonight” is geared towards our young tech savvy generation just like “Late Night.”

The next segment was a surprise with U2 performing on top of Rockefeller Center, which gave them an atmosphere that no other show on late night can give a musical guest. Hopefully this is where future musical guests perform, because the visuals were simply amazing.

This does not mean the new set built for Fallon is subpar — it’s probably the best-looking studio on TV. The studio is very modern, but it also has this very cool retro feel.

It is very obvious this is not your grandparents’ or parents’ “Tonight Show.” This is “The Tonight Show” for a modern audience.

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