Jimmy Fallon Was Told ‘NBC Doesn’t Really Want You’ for Late Night After ‘Taxi’ and ‘Fever Pitch’ Movies ‘Didn’t Work’; Lorne Michaels Told Execs: It’s Jimmy or ‘I’m Not Involved’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director When Jimmy Fallon returns to the air in Oct. following the end of the WGA strike, it will continue his 14th year as the host of an NBC late night talk show.
The “Saturday Night Live” alum got his late night start by taking over for Conan O’Brien as the host of “Late Night,” which Fallon led from March 2, 2009 to Feb.
7, 2014. But Fallon would’ve never booked the “Late Night” gig in the first place had it not been for “SNL” creator Lorne Micheals threatening NBC executives. “I was leaving ‘SNL’ [in 2004] and so [Michaels] goes, ‘Would you ever want to do it?
A talk show?’ I go, ‘I don’t think so,'” Fallon said on the “Strike Force Five” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) to cohosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver. “And so I said, ‘Well, in six years ask me and if I, you know, if I’m around, I’ll think about it.'” As he was leaving “SNL,” Fallon was more interested in starting a movie career like franchise alum Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy.
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