Jimmy Fallon says his Tonight show will be "the same show" as he's doing now as Late Night. "I'm not going to change anything," Fallon said while visiting the NBC station in the Orlando market. "It's more eyeballs watching but it's the same 
show." On the other hand, Fallon also told the TV critic for the Orlando Sentinel that what triggered the Tonight show hand-off to him (scheduled to coincide with the Winter '14 Olympics) was a call he got from Leno saying "I think I'm ready." Even NBC isn’t trying to get anyone to swallow that horseradish. After initially telling the Wall Street Journal in September of '12 there was no date for Leno's exit, after vigorously denying March press reports NBC planned to replace Leno with Fallon, and after announcing in May that Leno would leave Tonight the week leading up to to the Winter Olympics and Fallon would take over shortly thereafter, this past July NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt acknowledged discussions about moving Jay out had begun as soon as he, Greenblatt joined NBC in January of 2011. That puts it about 10 months after Jay returned to the Tonight hosting gig, after Conan O'Brien flamed out in the late night ratings (and Leno in his primetime strip), and local NBC stations complained.
According to Fallon, “As soon as I got Late Night, I called Jay and said, “I want to let you know I want to start on the right foot. I respect you.” I've been a guest on the show numerous times. I said, “I'm not gunning for your job. I'm not trying to plot anything. Whenever you're ready to step down, let me know. But I'm happy at 12:30."
Except when Fallon got Late Night, Leno didn’t have a job for Fallon to gun for at NBC. Fallon was announced as the guy who would replace Conan on the Late Night in May of '08, and he officially debuted in March of '09. NBC had announced way back in 2004 that Leno would be stepping down from Tonight in 2009; he left May 29, 2009.
Anyway, continuing Fallon’s version of reality, Orlando Sentinel reports Fallon said that when Leno called him and said "I think I'm ready, Fallon’s response was, “Let's do it the right way, the way it should be, with respect to the guy who's been No. 1 over twentysomething years.”
Don't count Leno out. Asked what’s the best advice he’s received from Leno, Fallon answered, "Longer monologues."
"I was doing about a three-, four-minute monologue. He was like, 'Make it like seven, eight minutes.' He said some people don't have time to see the news and they catch up on the news from your monologue sometimes. Give them a good monologue, a good solid eight- to 10-minute monologue."
Clever Jay.
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