Is Jay a Fit at Fox?
The Fox affiliates board is interested in the prospect of Jay Leno shifting to their air when the funnyman passes the Tonight Show torch to Jimmy Fallon, reports the NY Post.
It’s speculation, but the plan would have Leno at 11 p.m. on Fox.
“If Fox were to present the right business plan, the affiliate board would be interested,” Steve Pruett, the board chairman, said.
Reports the Post, which shares an owner with Fox:
When he leaves, Leno “could take a sizable crowd with him,” says Hollywood manager Howard Lapides, who has repped Carson Daly, Jimmy Kimmel and others.
“Fallon will eventually develop his own audience, but it could take years. If Jay Leno was my client I would take him straight to Fox tomorrow.”
It was exactly three years ago that Fox affiliates were contemplating Conan O’Brien on their air, until Conan stole the show at NAB with news that he was on board at TBS.
For the most part, affiliates were relieved to see Conan end up on cable.
Jay certainly brings a larger audience with him wherever he goes, if he goes.
loutenore commented:
for get it fox makes a ton of money off the reruns give it up not a chance the last thing they need is to flop in late night
Eric commented:
The idea of Jay Leno getting a Fox late-night show would have NBC worried. Leno is currently winning the #1 spot in late-night... which is pretty much keeping NBC relevant. The Today Show is #2 in ratings... NBC Primetime is #5... NBC needs to focus its attention on fixing The Today Show and its Primetime line-up. With The Tonight Show at #1... I'm familiar with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.
Jed commented:
FOX has been wanting to get into the latenight talk show circuit now for years and this would be a major coup for them if they could accomplish this, but remember, there are many of these affiliates that have deals with syndicators to air their programming during this timeframe, so all indications are they move up leno's show to 10:30 PM CT or at 11 PM or make some headway into allowing his show to be on at 10 PM CT and then the syndicated stuff airing afterwards. Too early to tell right now.