It’s an interesting time to be the executive producer of a network late night show. In the span of less than a year, the 11:30 programs on NBC, ABC and CBS will have undergone leadership changes at the top. On Friday The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon announced that Chris Miller would become the new showrunner starting in May, succeeding Jamie Granet-Bederman, who will move to a role developing new projects for Fallon. Miller joins from syndicated talker The Drew Barrymore Show, where he was one of the executive producers.
Jamie Granet-Bederman, who has worked with Jimmy Fallon for 11 years, will take over from Gavin Purcell, who is returning to an overall deal at Universal Television.
Jimmy Fallon and his Tonight Show staff embark on the high-wire act of two live shows following the first Democratic presidential primary debates Wednesday and Thursday.
Exclusives
Jay Leno returned to his Tonight Show stomping grounds, making an unannounced cameo during Jimmy Fallon’s opening monologue Tuesday night. Leno’s appearance comes as a surprise, though the timing is no mistake: his upcoming show Jay Leno’s Garage premieres Wednesday on NBC’s sister network, CNBC, so his spot makes for a perfect in-house promotion.
With an assist from the season finale of The Voice, NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon has hit a six-month ratings high — beating its Jimmy Kimmel-David Letterman competition combined in the key young adults demo.
David Brenner, who died in his New York City home Saturday at age 78 after battling cancer, was one of the most frequent visitors to the Tonight Show. He appeared as a guest and substitute host more than 150 times.
Remembering Before ‘Tonight’ Left New York
I hate to add to the tonnage of words speculating on Jimmy Fallon as the post-Leno host of a Tonight show relocating to New York. But I can’t help recalling my early devotion to Tonight back when it, and Carson, called New York home — and how, before Johnny took it West, I attended a taping at Manhattan’s 30 Rock.
The dinner meeting comes amid a flurry of news related to the network’s timetable for replacing the latenight host with Jimmy Fallon.
Jon Stewart has unseated Jay Leno to take the late-night ratings crown in the all-important 18-49 demographic for the just ended second quarter. It is the first time in 10 years — or 40 consecutive quarters — that NBC’s The Tonight Show has not won the quarterly demo ratings race.
About halfway through the season, NBC’s latenight moves are still moving in the right direction. TNT’s Conan continues to be a different story. NBC says through the first 20 weeks of the season The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is up 42% to 3.9 million viewers; CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman is down 14% to 3.6 million. While a significant improvement, the two shows on a long-term basis are much closer than they have been in their history.
