NBC is reportedly taking steps to replace Tonight Show host Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon. The network seems to be getting tired of Leno taking shots at NBC executives and making fun of the show’s low-ratings.
“You know the whole legend of St. Patrick, right? St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland — and then they came to the United States and became NBC executives,” Leno joked Monday on the show.
The following night Leno made fun of the show’s low ratings. In a monoluge he talked about a Serbian woman who has a rare brain condition that causes her to see everything upside down. He joked, “Isn’t that crazy? It’s unbelievable. She sees everything upside down. In fact, she thinks NBC is at the top of the ratings.”
When the changing of the guard on the Tonight Show will occur is still yet to be known. “It’s basically a done deal,” a source associated with the network told New York’s Daily News. “It’s come down to a matter of when.”
Leno’s contract expires in September 2014 so changes may not occur for at least another year. Some analyst speculate that NBC may be eyeing next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia as a perfect launch vehicle for a new Tonight Show.
The new incarnation of the Tonight Show is expected to have Jimmy Fallon as host and could include a possible move of the show from its studios in Burbank, CA to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. There are reports that work has already quietly begun to build a new set in the Big Apple. If the show does move to New York City, it will be the first time the show has been moved from its Burbank studios since Johnny Carson moved the show to the West Coast from NYC in 1972.
Since 45-year-old Jimmy Kimmel moved to an earlier time slot to compete head-to-head with 62-year-old Jay Leno and 65-year-old David Letterman, the ABC host has been chipping away at the Tonight Show‘s younger demographic. With 38-year-old Jimmy Fallon as host, the show would be able to cater to a younger demographic that advertisers crave after.
Late Night producer Lorne Michaels spoke of the transition in the April 2013 issue of GQ saying it has “an inevitability to it,” claiming Fallon is the closest talent he’s seen to Johnny Carson in this generation.
