Jay Leno to 'leave Tonight Show next year with Jimmy Fallon taking over as host'

[pwaldo]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...king-host.html

Jay Leno may finally be handing the reins of The Tonight Show off to a new host, but not by choice.

A new report says the upcoming 2013-2014 season will be Leno's last behind the desk before he's replaced by Jimmy Fallon.

Fallon, who now hosts NBC's Late Show, will be officially announced as the new host sometime in the summer of next year.

The Hollywood Reporter cited two anonymous 'high-level industry sources' who say the network wants to bring in Fallon in response to Jimmy Kimmel's show moving to the 11:35 time slot in January.

'The more time Jimmy Kimmel is in that slot, the more the young audience goes that way, the harder it is for [Fallon] to keep that audience,' one source said.

Jay Leno has kept his spot on top of the late-night ratings, but Kimmel is competitive in the coveted 18-49 demographic.

'Kimmel has done extremely well,' said one unnamed network veteran. 'Jay wins overall, but on any given night, it's neck-and-neck in 18-49. I understand where they might have fear and also feel that they own the solution [in Fallon.]'

NBC denied the story, while Jay Leno's reps said 'we do not speculate on rumor.'

[Star_Cards]

UGH... he needs to just go away. I never understood why he drew the ratings.

[Kosmo kards]

Conan O'Brien has to be laughing at this.

[drtom2005]

Do we really think Jay is going to retire or just die?

[Star_Cards]

well if the network is making the change he has little choice.

[Rybowski]

Somewhere Conan is laughing at this story. Jay should of handed the show over to him when he said he was going to, but he reneged on that, which still to this day was garbage. I hope the network gives him the boot as he just needs to move on.

[duane1969]

Option A: Believe "high-level industry sources" that Leno is done.

Option B: Believe that NBC didn't give Leno a contract extension just 8 weeks ago that extends beyond the original end of his contract in 2014 only to turn around weeks later and move Fallon into his spot. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2421260.html

I take Option B.