Jay Leno

It's official! On May 12, NBC will finally officially announce that Saturday Night Live's Jimmy Fallon will take over next year for Conan O'Brien, who will dethrone Jay Leno on the Tonight Show gig. "Jimmy's a smart pick," one network executive told Entertainment Weekly. ''He's a young, cute guy that will draw women in.'' Um, we don't think women are all that into a giggly dude who lives in a kind of perpetual post-college adolescence, but maybe that's just us. And what about Jay?  read more »

Following Hillary Clinton's joke about (and over-explaining of) the Bosnia debacle on Jay Leno last night, she talked about how early it is in the campaign season.

On the night of Jan. 7, NBC’s Jay Leno interviewed Republican candidate for president Ron Paul on the Tonight Show. During the course of the interview, Mr. Leno noted that Mr. Paul had recently been “screwed over” by FOX News execs, who had decided not to invite Mr. Paul to participate in the Republican Forum the night before.  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg welcomed Late Show host David Letterman back to the air after his two-month hiatus by presenting a key to the city to Mr. Letterman's latest fashion choice—the strike beard. Both Mr. Letterman and Conan O’Brien let out their inner mountainman as a sign of solidarity with the writers. While Jay Leno gets shunned by the Writers Guild of America for coming back on air with his own written monologues, Mr. Letterman is back—with his writers—after reaching a deal with the WGA to let them work. Mr. Bloomberg wanted to honor Mr. Letterman's efforts.  read more »

Jay Leno delivered his second monologue last night, one that he wrote himself. He could lose his guild membership or face a fine from the Writers Guild of America if he keeps writing his own late-night punchlines. The WGA lambasted Mr. Leno yesterday for delivering his monologue, saying it violated guild rules during the strike. NBC, which airs the Tonight Show, quickly fired back, arguing that "the WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue for `The Tonight Show,'" according to an NBC statement.  read more »

"You know what I'm doing? I'm doing what I did the day I started," said Jay Leno last night on his first return on air since the Writers Guild of America strike started. "I write jokes and wake my wife up in the middle of the night and say, 'Honey, is this funny?' So if this monologue doesn't work it's my wife's fault...We are not using outside guys. We are following the guild thing... We can write for ourselves..."  read more »

As the media ponders the improv talents of late-night talk show hosts returning on Jan. 3 without writers, the Jay Leno show booked their first guest since the Writers Guild of America started their strike on Nov. 5. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee has signed on to sit opposite Mr. Leno, according to the Hollywood Reporter.  read more »

The late-night talk show hosts are returning. But the stars are not yet ready to come out for them if it means crossing the writers' picket line. Celebrities don't want to be the first to accept a booking on a show and face the wrath of the writers alone.

The New York Times reports:  read more »

As the Media Mob told us this morning, there were reports of late-night shows possibly returning by Jan. 2. Those rumors have been confirmed by NBC this morning, according to The New York Times.

NBC officially announced today that its two late-night stars, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, will return to the air on Jan. 2 even if the strike against networks and studios by entertainment writers is not resolved by then.  read more »

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There may be no end in sight to the writers strike, but the late-night shows could soon be back on the air anyway.

The Writers Guild said over the weekend that it would be willing to sign individual agreements with media companies, and the independent company that owns The Late Show with David Letterman said it plans to take advantage of that move to work towards a deal, according to several reports.  read more »

David Letterman is winning the battle of the re-runs, the New York Post reports.

Since the writers strike began over a month ago, forcing both Mr. Letterman of CBS and his late-night rival, Jay Leno of NBC, into re-runs, Mr. Letterman's numbers are down only around 21 percent, whle Mr. Leno's are off by 40 percent. Mr. Leno still leads, but, says the Post, "Letterman hasn't been this close to Leno in years."  read more »

In a meeting yesterday, Jay Leno told his staff he'd continue to pay their salaries through Christmas, Variety reports.

Previously, Mr. Leno had been paying them on a week-by-week basis, which he'll continue to do after the holiday, he reportedly said.  read more »

“There will be no ‘Tonight Show’ tonight,” said Joe Meceiros, the show’s head writer, outside NBC Studios in Burbank, California today, according to the New York Times' TV Decoder blog.

Celebrity guests won’t feel the same financial pinch as writers, of course, but some authors and performers [scheduled to appear on late-night talk shows] will undoubtedly miss out on what might have been rare opportunities at national exposure.

Garth Brooks was expected to perform on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” tonight, in his “first late-night television performance since announcing his retirement nine years ago,” NBC said last week. But Mr. Brooks’ appearance is on hold, along with the late-night programming on NBC, CBS and Comedy Central.

In a strange way, ABC may benefit from the postponement of “The Tonight Show” and “The Late Show with David Letterman,” because its news program “Nightline” will be live and original tonight. However, “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” which airs at 12:05 a.m., will revert to a repeat tonight. “We will take it day by day,” an ABC spokeswoman confirmed today.

"Conan O'Brien will take over The Tonight Show in 2009,'' NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker said yesterday in New York at an event arranged by Syracuse Universiy's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, according to the AP.

If Tonight Show host Jay Leno is having second thoughts about surrendering his job as planned, NBC doesn't share them—at least not publicly.

Zucker said he'd like Leno to remain with the company and that ''we are in those conversations now.''

''I'm hopeful that Jay will be with us,'' the executive told the question-and-answer session.

A deal for Leno's exit was finalized three years ago as part of NBC Universal's effort to keep Late Night host O'Brien from bolting to a competing network. Leno marked his 15th year as host of Tonight last May.