As most media watchers are already aware, there is a big shakeup coming next year to the late-night TV talk shows. Jay Leno will be retiring from ‘the Tonight Show’ on NBC, and Conan O’Brien will be stepping in to fill his position. Meanwhile, comedian and actor Jimmy Fallon has been tapped to replace Conan O’Brien as host of ‘Late Night’ at 12:30.
The transition for the talk shows will begin early in 2009, and ‘Late Night’ executive producer Lorne Michaels has revealed that Fallon will begin taping a series of web-only comedy routines as a type of warm up for taking over Conan O’Brien’s 12:30 spot. The idea is to allow Mr. Fallon to “find his feet” before officially taking over the show sometime next spring.
NBC has not revealed which web sites they will use to debut the online warm-ups, but the New York Times is reporting that the web-only programs will be short in length (possibly 10 minutes), and will be posted nightly at 12:30 a.m., so that viewers can get used to Jimmy Fallon being on at that time.
In essence, NBC is planning to use the Internet as an inexpensive way to work out the kinks of ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ before it débuts on the network. The move is also seen as a good way to build an audience for the show months before it actually débuts on television.
You have to give NBC executives credit on this one (especially Lorne Michaels); using the Internet to work out new comedy routines and experiment with formats is an inexpensive way to test market the new show among their primary demographic — 25 to 45-year-old men and women (the most common demographic online).
But the decision to “experiment” online before debuting the show on NBC could also backfire for ‘Late Night’ and Fallon. If the comedy sketches and routines presented online don’t catch fire with the public, Fallon and the new ‘Late Night’ could get a bad rep before they’ve even had a chance to properly develop the new show.
Of course, this risk is minimized by the fact that Mr. Fallon already has a substantial legion of loyal fans, many of whom are sure to follow him to late-night TV. Still, NBC must be careful to not treat the Internet as a “farm league” in which to try out untested material. Internet-based comedy shows are becoming more sophisticated all the time, and Mr. Fallon may find that he has a great deal of competition online to compete with, many of whom already have massive and loyal followings.
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