*NBC is reducing “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” from five nights a week to four, with reruns airing on Fridays.
This change follows recent budget cuts as networks adjust to declining late-night viewership and increased competition from streaming services, The Independent reports.
Although “The Tonight Show” has been renewed through 2028, Fallon, who has hosted since 2014, is adapting to these new budgetary constraints.
Fallon tapes new episodes on Friday night despite his competitors, such as ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” CBS’s “The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert,” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” taping only four each week.
“Sadly, it’s the reality of broadcast and a shrinking market – streaming eating into this, and YouTube eating into that,” Late Night with Seth Meyers’s associate musical director Eli Janney said in June of the budget cuts.
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“Streaming is not making money, either. So budgets everywhere have been cut and cut and cut. I liken it to a Spotify moment in music, where suddenly it’s like, nobody wants to pay for music. Music gets devalued.”
New episodes of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” air Monday through Thursday on NBC at 11:35pm.
In June, Fallon’s contract was renewed for the show to air for four more years.
“For nearly 30 years, I’ve brought laughter into the homes of millions and charmed audiences from the stages of 30 Rock,” he said in a statement, per PEOPLE.
“It’s been a privilege to be at the helm of The Tonight Show, and I’m thrilled to see what innovations me and the incredible staff will deliver in the years to come at the network,” he said.
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