The late-night TV audience is shrinking, and so is the number of weekly episodes for the format’s signature program.
NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” will have four fresh editions a week instead of five when the fall TV season begins this month.
Fallon’s show aired four nights a week throughout the summer, the same frequency as other late-night shows, including NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
An NBC representative had no official comment, but a person with knowledge of the plan confirmed that the show will stick to the summer schedule going forward.
“The Tonight Show” is the granddaddy of the desk-and-sofa format, debuting in 1954 with Steve Allen as host and reaching its cultural apex with the three-decade run of Johnny Carson. The New York-based show has aired continually on a five-days-a-week basis since, with Fallon taking over the host chair from Jay Leno in 2014.
Late-night talk shows were long a massively lucrative genre for broadcast networks, with hosts seeing salaries that approached $30 million a year. The shows were highly desirable to advertisers because they were effective at reaching younger viewers.
But the programs are having to adjust their budgets as the erosion of traditional TV viewing habits due to streaming has reduced their audiences considerably over the years.
Many young fans of the late-show hosts know them through videos of segments on social media and YouTube.
The trends have led to budget tightening across the genre. After Trevor Noah departed “The Daily Show” in 2022, the program used guest hosts for years before bringing back Jon Stewart on a once-a-week basis. “Daily Show” correspondents show up as hosts on other nights.
Earlier this year, NBC cut the live band that was long a part of “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”
While NBC is reducing costs, the network has signed new multiyear deals with Fallon and Meyers that keep them in their roles through 2028.