Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon – Better Get Used to That

Change. We don’t like change. If we could have it our way, Jay Leno would just be the Tonight Show host forever. Change, though, is inevitable, and change will see Jimmy Fallon host the Tonight Show from 2014, apparently.

A clip from Louie, which deals with chatshow host's retiring, and also features Jay Leno

The Hollywood Reporter broke the story over the weekend that Fallon would be replacing Leno in the 11:35 p.m. slot. They said it would happen “partly out of concern about the competition on ABC,” who moved Jimmy Kimmel to the 11:35 time slot in January, which puts him in direct competition with the older Leno, and more likely to succeed with the much-coveted 18-49-year-old demographic. This isn’t an announcement by a network – in fact, NBC quickly issued a categorical denial to these claims, but the feeling is: this is just one of those things the press have got right. Fallon is young, at 38, for the business, and had a lot of potential to stay in the chair for years to come. He’s buddies with all the young hip stars, like Justin Timberlake and Matt Damon. His house-band, which he’d take anywhere, are also highly regarded by both TV bosses and audiences alike.

You can see where they're going with Fallon replacing Leno

This will, of course, leave a big Fallon shaped hole in The Late Show, but with Tina Fey’s latest 4-year NBC contract, she might be the perfect person to fill that space. And so goes the merry-go-round of chat show presenters. It’s almost like someone should write this in a sitcom.