While Fox Ponders a Jay Leno Late-Night Show, Andy Richter (Kind of) Weighs In on 'Tonight Show' Saga

Welcome to 2009 all over again. While NBC hoped to keep its upcoming transition plans for The Tonight Show under wraps, the network now finds itself on the verge yet another battle over the late-night show. With all signs pointing to Jimmy Fallon taking over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in either February or fall of 2014, one big question out there is where will Leno go now? Popculturology took its shot at answering this question yesterday, and while we dismissed the idea that Leno could go to Fox, the New York Post is reporting that the chairman of Fox's affiliate board would welcome a Leno late-night show at 11 p.m.

The head of Fox’s powerful affiliate board — who represents the majority of the 206 Fox stations around the country, said yesterday he favors building a new late-night show — starting at 11 o’clock — around the departing “Tonight Show” host. “If Fox were to present the right business plan, the affiliate board would be interested,” Steve Pruett, the board chairman, told The Post.

As we pointed out yesterday, a late-night talk show on Fox faces different hurdles than one on NBC or CBS would, with Fox's affiliate structure making it more difficult to push through a network-wide program in place of the Seinfeld repeats many Fox affiliates usually run after the 10 p.m. news.

While Leno's future is up in the air, I think the chance of Fallon getting the Conan O'Brien treatment this time is slim to none. While O'Brien had a lot of friends in the industry, no one at NBC was fighting for him. If Leno were to somehow screw over Fallon, NBC would risk alienating a list of names that includes Lorne Michaels, the past and present cast of Saturday Night Live and Justin Timberlake. I don't think a fifth-place network can risk that kind of move.

Meanwhile, the Huffington Post tried to lure Conan sidekick Andy Richter into the latest Tonight Show fracas, with HuffPostLive host Josh Zepps tweeting Richter, "Hey Andy. Big fan. On HuffPostLive on Monday we're talking Tonight Show kerfuffles. Love you to join by phone or webcam?" Richter's response on Twitter? "Eww. No!" along with a retweet of Zepp's message for all to see. If you're going to publicly ask anyone connected to O'Brien to talk about The Tonight Show, you should be prepared for the blunt kind of rejection Richter doled out.