Jay Leno Moving Out Sooner Rather Than Later?

We thought we had gotten rid of Leno when Conan took his place back in 2010, but we all know how badly that ended. Leno somehow managed to snake his way back in, Conan grew a beard and is now having moderate success on TBS and the whole world cried just a little bit when they saw Jay Leno’s chin violate their television sets yet again.

However, I am assuming that most everyone has heard the good news by now. NBC is planning on replacing Leno with Jimmy Fallon when Leno’s contract ends in September of 2014. However, it’s being reported that some NBC executives want the switch to happen earlier. They want Fallon to take over Leno’s timeslot in February to take advantage of the promotional opportunities of the 2014 Winter Olympics. They think Fallon will benefit from the earlier move, and receive a big boost from the Winter Olympics. The executives might also be pushing for an earlier launch because it would keep Leno from going to a rival network until his contract ended in September.

As of right now, everything above is just pure speculation. In fact, the executive producer of Late Night, Lorne Michaels feels like an earlier launch would be a mistake. Some feel like it would make the show feel rushed and could get the show off on the wrong foot. In any event, an announcement will be made at the May upfront presentation, and judging by some of the recent quotes coming from Michaels and Leno, a change is needed.

Michaels recently told GQ that Fallon was the closest to [Johnny] Carson that he’s seen in this generation.
And while there seems to be a lot of love between Fallon and Michaels, that doesn’t seem to be the case
with Leno and NBC executives. Leno has been taking a lot of cheap shots at NBC lately in his monologue.

During a recent show Leno said,

“You know the whole legend of St. Patrick, right? St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, and then they came to the United States and became NBC executives. It’s a fascinating story.”

Poor Leno. It’s kind of like trying to tell your old senile uncle that he isn’t welcomed at Thanksgiving anymore. Sure, it might hurt him for a little bit, but he’ll pop in a Hungry Man frozen dinner in the microwave and bounce back.

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