Hack Jimmy Fallon, who couldn’t get through a SNL skit without cracking up, to take over for Conan on ‘Late Night’
Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom! Visit and bookmark our new site. Buzz is bigger and better, including sports, world news, gadgets and the entertainment news that you're used to. Same staff, just more stuff! Why Fark, Drudge and Huffington when you can Buzz!?One of the worst-kept secrets in TV was announced Monday: Jimmy Fallon will take over the hosting duties of “Late Night” when Conan O’Brien leaves for “Tonight.”
“He is a handpicked talent, part of the NBC family already,” NBC entertainment chief Ben Silverman said Monday afternoon in a news conference at the Top of the Rock above NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Center headquarters.
Fallon will take over “Late Night” in 2009, though neither he nor producing partner Lorne Michaels committed to a date. It will remain in New York City, and Michaels said there would be further announcements about casting down the road. It will also air five nights a week. Michael said they were talking to one executive producer candidate in particular but he declined to discuss who.
“It’s a comedian’s dream to get his job, to work with writers and try to be funny every night,” Fallon said. Fallon said he wasn’t kidding himself, though: He knows it’s going to be hard work, every night, and that sometimes jokes will fall flat. His wife also has no illusions. “She left me a note this morning saying, ‘Nice knowing you,’ ” he said.
- From THR