Considering Dwayne Johnson is one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, it makes sense that his most recent TV venture, The Titan Games, involves big muscles and bigger challenges. The multi-hyphenate entertainer made a "surprise" visit to The Tonight Show in order to task Jimmy Fallon with his very own Titan Games feat of strength in the studio. Give it a watch to see how well the host does...or doesn't.
Since Dwayne Johnson is such a busy guy, he can't quite chisel out enough time in his day to pop up on the Tonight Show stage in person to promote his popular new show. So a video call it was, and it was a strange game of ratios from that point on, with the bulked up Johnson pepping his talk up on a small screen, with the less Rock-like Jimmy Fallon taking up the bigger part of the screen.
Even when he's just a digital image and voice through a phone, though, Dwayne Johnson still knows how to get people motivated into doing whatever ridiculous acts he cooks up. And so when it was revealed that a super-sized Titan Games ball-and-chain were Fallon's belated Christmas present, no amount of the host's semi-scoffs and half-pshaws could slow the momentum.
The inevitable happened when Jimmy Fallon made his way over to the 250-lb. ball and attempted to give it the old college yank-em. His attempts were admirable, possibly, but there were all in vain. Or perhaps they were all done without any vanity whatsoever, since Fallon basically had to play weakling for a bit. I wonder if David Letterman or Jay Leno would have done anything similar.
Perhaps the true Titan Games challenge hidden within trying to pull that 250 -lb. ball was indeed to teach Jimmy Fallon to allow others to help him in times of need in situations like this. So that the next time he's faced with lugging around a giant orb, he won't have to waste any time trying to do it all by himself, right?
That doesn't quite answer what he should do if Higgins and Tariq aren't always hanging around, though. Also, I don't think Dwayne Johnson allows his Titan Games contestants to suddenly bring out their own personal announcers and band leaders whenever they get stuck. Maybe they just haven't gotten to that part of the season yet. It's still early, after all.
I kinda hope Dwayne Johnson returns to The Tonight Show for every holiday in the near-future to offer Jimmy Fallon a new "gift" to test his grit. Not his American grit, though, because that's a different show. Bring on the Arbor Day Tree-Flinging Challenge!
The Titan Games airs Thursday nights on NBC at 8:00 p.m. ET. There are lots of other new and returning shows hitting the small screen in the near future, so be sure to check out our midseason premiere schedule to see all the dates.
