More NBC late night movement coming Fallon to Tonight Show, Stern to 12:30?

Can't believe NBC would want Stern for 12:30 for as much as he pissed all over Leno. Still, money talks I guess.

 

They wouldn't care about that.

I still don't believe they have an interest in Stern because the financial numbers would make no sense for 12:30, he's too old for the kind of show NBC has traditionally wanted at 12:30, and they'd have to instantly deal with him backstabbing whoever has 11:30.

 

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Fallon is going to take over The Tonight Show, possibly as soon as next February.

 

Bill Carter says the Fallon-for-Leno swap is a done deal, just a question of when. He also says "Tonight" will move back to NY and a new studio is being built for the new Fallon show.

 

Conan O'Brien thinks this is a great move.

 

Conan O'Brien may be able to regain his 12:35 spot when this is said and done.

 

I think it's interesting that people are saying that one of the things that prompted the move was that Kimmel has taken away a share of Leno and Letterman's audience since he moved to 11:35.

I don't look at the ratings regularly, but I think Leno has remained No. 1, but Kimmel has beaten Letterman in the 18-49 demographic pretty regularly since switching. I think overall, all three are within a 100K viewers of each other. I think Leno was 2.8 million, Letterman was 2.7 and Kimmel was 2.6.

I think Fallon is much funnier than Leno and probably a better fit at 11:35 than Conan was, but I really have a hard time believing that he's going to draw in the older crowd that Leno does so well with. Unless it's simply a case of "branding" where people watch the Tonight Show because they've always watched the Tonight Show dating back to Carson.

It will be interesting to see what Leno does. For someone who is a professed workaholic, I don't see him just retiring.

 

Leno's done the show for 20 years now. That's a long, long time. He doesn't have to retire, he can do whatever he wants in show business and be well-paid for doing it. Standup tours (he was once a damn funny standup guy, back when Ronald Reagan still had all his marbles), movies, you name it. Another TV show on cable so he could work blue?

 

I think moving The Tonight Show to NYC is going to be a mistake.

During the early days of the Leno vs. Letterman wars one of the reasons given that Leno was doing better was because being in LA gave him access to better guests.

I think Kimmel is the big winner here.

 

Letterman won't be doing the show too much longer. He's signed through 2014 and I think outlasting Leno will be enough for him. It's funny though. He's 66, Ferguson is 50. Maybe they move Ferguson to 1130 as a stop gap and try and find someone young at 12:30 for the eventual move to 11:30.

 

I know a lot of people like Ferguson, but I don't see him working at 11:30. I think at this point that's what will likely happen unless they make a huge push for Jon Stewart, which I don't think they will and I'm not sure Stewart would even take it if offered.

If memory serves, Stewart has been passed over at least twice, in favor of Conan at 1230 and Kimmel, who was actually ABC's second choice, and was also rumored to be in the mix when CBS went with Ferguson.