Fallon Falls Into Late Night With Nightly Webcasts

Conan O'Brien's successor to debut as late-night host in nightly webcasts in advance of TV debut next spring

Jimmy Fallon is going to log a little more time on NBC's farm team, working under the hope that practice makes perfect for the Late Night host-in-waiting.

Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of the house that Conan O'Brien built, has revealed plans for his successor to hone his late-night shtick with five or six months' worth of online webcasts prior to his TV debut in the post-Tonight Show slot.

The online shows will come in advance of Fallon's spring 2009 takeover and, presumably, will help work out the kinks that, back when O'Brien first started out, nearly rendered the then-untested host DOA on the airwaves.

"Conan needed time to find his show," Michaels said of the one-time David Letterman successor. "I think this will help Jimmy to do that."

The five- to 10-minute webcasts, which will likely debut online, will "help define what the show looks like," Michaels said, while allowing for more experimentation.

"It will let Jimmy do stuff you don't normally find on television," said Michaels, adding that the show won't necessarily take advantage of the less policed medium. "I think we're our own censors."

Another benefit, planned or not, is that the show will allow Fallon a foothold into a younger demographic, something competitors Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel have been encroaching on with more persistence in recent months.

The webcasts will be daily, posted online at 12:30 a.m., in the five-minute window between the end of the Tonight Show and the beginning of Late Night, "so people will begin to look for Jimmy at that time," Michaels said.

Although NBC's website seems the natural place for such an endeavor, Michaels said he's unsure where the segments will premiere.