Is Leno Jaywalking Out of NBC?

Comedian unlikely to stay after O'Brien takes over show

By Kevin Spak

Posted May 13, 2008 6:28 AM CDT

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Is Leno Jaywalking Out of NBC? — Jay Leno leaves at the annual Vanity Fair Oscar party at Morton's in West Hollywood, Calif., in this Feb. 25, 2007, file photo. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok, file)

Jay Leno is probably leaving NBC when Conan O’Brien takes over the “Tonight Show,” an NBC executive said yesterday. After a news conference unveiling Jimmy Fallon as O’Brien’s 12:35 replacement, NBC Entertainment co-chair Ben Silverman said the network would try to keep Leno on board, but “I think it’s a reach.”

It’s not clear when precisely Fallon will take over for O’Brien, but it will likely be around the time O’Brien takes over the "Tonight Show" in June 2009. Fallon said he’s been looking forward to the gig since age 5, when his kindergarten yearbook named him “most likely to take over for David Letterman.”

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