Jimmy Fallon Expected To Be Named Successor To Conan O'Brien

[Brian Damage]

LOS ANGELES — The Jay Leno chase is on.

Four years ago, NBC made the comedian the lame-duck host of “The Tonight Show,” announcing with fanfare that he would be succeeded by Conan O’Brien in 2009.

Today, Mr. Leno is still the champion of late-night ratings, with no apparent desire to do anything else but continue on top. “What I do,” he has said on several occasions to colleagues, “is tell jokes at 11:30 at night.”

And so, nearly two years before he can officially be courted, suitors including two networks, ABC and Fox, and at least one television studio, Sony Pictures Television, are beginning to circle, doing everything they legally can to make sure Mr. Leno knows that they will make it possible for him to continue doing just that.

Senior executives at ABC and Fox said that their networks had discreetly gotten the message to Mr. Leno that they were waiting eagerly for the time when they would be able to make official overtures. NBC Universal, meanwhile, has repeatedly expressed its intention to retain Mr. Leno with a still-undisclosed plan for a new program.

Sony Pictures Television has made an approach through intermediaries to let Mr. Leno and his representatives know that as soon as he is allowed to discuss his next move, the studio will make him a rich offer for a syndicated late-night show that would make him the highest-paid host in late-night television, put his name on a new theater on the Sony lot and give him a financial interest in Sony music artists who appear on his show.

Executives who have heard the details of the plan said the move was Sony’s effort to stake a flag in the ground, knowing how intense the pursuit of Mr. Leno was likely to be in coming months.

In a series of interviews here, executives on several sides of the courtship of Mr. Leno outlined possible plans for his future. They all asked to speak anonymously because they are not allowed to negotiate with Mr. Leno until November 2009, when a negotiating window will open up in Mr. Leno’s deal with NBC.

Executives who know the details of his contract said Mr. Leno would remain attached to NBC through the end of 2009 even though he probably would not be on the air for the last six months of the contract. Mr. Leno’s contract is estimated to pay him about $25 million a year — which is less than David Letterman’s, which pays him more than $30 million. “Jay will of course honor his contract obligations to NBC,” said Kenneth Ziffren, Mr. Leno’s lawyer. (Mr. Leno works without a formal deal with an agent or manager.) “Jay isn’t talking to anyone about anything and won’t be until it’s contractually proper,” Mr. Ziffren said.

In 2004, when they established a plan for the network’s late-night future, NBC executives most likely did not expect to find themselves facing the prospect of losing another incumbent late-night star to a competitor. That happened in the early 1990s when Mr. Letterman defected to CBS after Mr. Leno won the battle to succeed Johnny Carson.

Instead, the announcement of the five-year transition from Mr. Leno to Mr. O’Brien in 2009 cut off efforts by other networks to steal away Mr. O’Brien, whose “Late Night” appears on NBC after “Tonight,” and secured five more years with both Mr. Leno and Mr. O’Brien in the NBC fold.

But if the expectations at NBC had been that Mr. Leno, as he approached 60, would be showing signs of slackening in popularity, he has defied them, winning in the ratings virtually every night, even during the recent three-month writers’ strike. Mr. Leno’s ratings dominance even without writers was noted throughout the television business, and only heightened the already intense curiosity surrounding his next move.

Mr. Letterman is signed at CBS through 2010.

The terms of Mr. Leno’s contract, as well as the tentative plan for how and when Mr. O’Brien will step in to replace him on “Tonight,” have set up a sequence of events that will have both comedians off the air in 2009 for extended periods of time.

Executives close to the planning said the expectation now was that Mr. O’Brien would leave “Late Night” next January, allowing him five months to reshape his show for the transition from New York to Los Angeles and the earlier time period of “Tonight.”

NBC has begun construction on a new studio for “Tonight,” as well as offices for Mr. O’Brien’s staff, on its Universal lot here. Several executives predicted that NBC would use the months Mr. O’Brien will be off the air to introduce his successor, widely expected to be Jimmy Fallon, the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member. Mr. Fallon is the favorite of Lorne Michaels, the “Saturday Night Live” producer who had success in choosing the unknown Mr. O’Brien in 1993 to succeed Mr. Letterman and who will again be involved in the selection of the new host of “Late Night.” Moving into the show next February would mean Mr. Fallon could benefit from the lead-ins from Mr. Leno’s last months on “Tonight.”

But the terms of NBC’s contract also mean Mr. Leno could not return to the air anywhere else until January 2010. That would give Mr. O’Brien an extended period on “Tonight” without facing competition from Mr. Leno.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/ar...on/27leno.html

[TJL]

Do you think Leno is going to move to another network after he eaves NBC?

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by TJL

Do you think Leno is going to move to another network after he eaves NBC?

No doubt about that. Jay has said in many interviews that he is not ready to retire. He will definitely get a gig elsewhere. My guess is FOX as they really want to tap into the late night market yet again.

[Scoobiedoo30]

if Jay Leno would go to ABC woyuld it air after Jimmy Kimmel Live

[Ireneparalegal]

I will follow Jay anywhere.

[TJL]

I read somewhere that Jimmy Fallon has been under some sort of "pay or play" contract with NBC for a few years now; basically they are paying him not to go to another network and to wait for Conan to vacate his show.

Must be nice to get paid to do nothing.

[Scoobiedoo30]

if Jay Leno goes anywhere it could be ABC

[JulieSomoski]

Originally Posted by Scoobiedoo30

if Jay Leno goes anywhere it could be ABC

I think he'll most likely go to FOX, because they could easily pay a lot for him to start a new latenight talk show at 11:35, competing with Conan and Letterman. If he were to go to ABC, it would have to be at midnight or 1am.

[theshark8777]

If he went to FOX he could start at 11 even.

[Scoobiedoo30]

FOX tryed a Talk Show called The Magic Hour and that got Cancelled

[Sterling Holobyte]

Remember when SNL alumnus Chevy Chase got his own talk show gig?

...'nuff said!

[Sterling Holobyte]

Originally Posted by TJL

Must be nice to get paid to do nothing.

Why not, that's what he did on SNL.

[TJL]

Originally Posted by Sterling Holobyte

Why not, that's what he did on SNL.

[JulieSomoski]

Originally Posted by Scoobiedoo30

FOX tryed a Talk Show called The Magic Hour and that got Cancelled

Yeah, but this is with Jay Leno. I'm sure most Tonight Show watchers would turn over to FOX to keep watching Jay at a new show.

[Scoobiedoo30]

I was just thinking if Jay Leno would happen to go to The FOX Network I think FOX would air Jay Leno at 10:00 pm Central Time