If Fallon Gets Leno’s Gig, Will Fallon’s Gig Go to Seth Meyers?

Seth MeyersRight now, the conversation about The Tonight Show’s succession plans seems to be taking Jimmy Fallon’s takeover as a sure thing: Most of the talk is about when, not if, Jimmy takes Leno’s seat and brings it back to dirty, sweaty, pretzel-ridden New York City. And while Jay and Jimmy make fun of NBC about the whole thing, the analysts weigh in about why it’s happening (younger audiences! tax breaks!) But in all that hullabaloo, we’ve lost sight on one very important thing: Who’s gonna host Late Night, a.k.a. the one NBC talk show that’s actually been consistently watchable and sometimes pretty damn great over the last 20 years?

Well, now there’s an answer to that: Seth Meyers! The New York Post reports that Lorne Michaels, who revived his ol’ pal Jimmy Fallon’s career by grooming and producing him at Late Night, would like to slot another one of his SNL protégés into the spot. A source for the Post says, “Lorne Michaels wants Seth to take over from Fallon. It would be perfect for him. Tina Fey’s name had also come up, but she has said she was too busy to do it.” Yes, Tina Fey is too famous to do it. But Seth does seem good. Note that the last time we were talking Meyers, it was when his name came up in contention to host Live! The Late Night gig doesn’t only make more sense for Meyers’s general smart-aleck comedic aesthetic, it also — now that you mention it — seems like one of the few gigs that would make sense for Meyers (who’s not quite an actor but certainly more than a writer) after SNL. Huh. OK. Yeah. Perfect!

Filed Under: Jimmy Fallon

Amos Barshad has written for New York Magazine, Spin, GQ, XXL, and the Arkansas Times. He is a staff writer for Grantland.

Archive @ AmosBarshad