NBC Pulls Back ‘Tonight Show’ to Four Nights Per Week
The last of TV’s big five-original-nights-a-week late-night show is giving up 24 hours out of its schedule.
NBC will move “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” to four nights a week, the latest in a series of moves across the late-night daypart aimed at shoring up the economics of the programs as audiences move away from watching TV in linear fashion. Like its late-night rivals, “Tonight” will air in repeats on Fridays.
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CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” are already on a four-originals-per-week schedule.
NBC has been examining costs in late-night in recent months. Earlier this year, the network decided to eliminate the house band from Meyers’ 12:35 a.m. hour, a move that recently went into effect. But all of the networks have tested similar maneuvers in recent years.
NBC has gotten out of the business of programming a 1:30 a.m. slot it once filled with hosts like Bob Costas and Carson Daly. Comedy Central has given up on trying to devise a companion show to “Daily” that can follow the program after 11:30 p.m., and currently has Jon Stewart hosting the program once each week, with contributors such as Desi Lydic and Jordan Klepper filling in other days,. ABC has gone so far as to allow Kimmel to go on vacation for several weeks every summer.
More to come…
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