Gearing up for his NBCÂ late-night premiere on March 2, 2009, Jimmy Fallon plans to release a series of behind-the-scenes Web-exclusive videos, the first of which aired (interneted?) last night.
We didn’t learn all that much about Jimmy or the show except that he’s excited, and perhaps humbled, to be occupying the recently vacated news studio that once housed Milton Berle and Johnny Carson, before the latter’s show moved to California. Also, in a passing moment before the video goes black, Fallon introduces the Roots as his Max Weinberg 7.
Though it’s too soon to tell whether Fallon is well cast as a late-night host, we can be sure that it’ll be better than his comedy album, his role in 2004’s Taxi, or his stint on SNL.
Fallon’s video blog premiered after, though not due to, learning that Jay Leno would be given a new time slot on NBC, creating a tangled nest of late-night carnage and, hopefully, comedy. Conan O’Brien, who is taking over Leno’s time slot and duties as host of the Tonight Show, is giving his time slot and show name—minus the with Conan O’Brien part—to Fallon.
So, it breaks down like this: Leno got the newly created late-evening show, airing at 10 p.m. (still technically primetime); Conan will be on the Tonight Show; and Fallon will be on Late Night. Rest assured that Carson Daly went unscathed through NBC’s imbroglio of late-night musical chairs.