Is NBC Planning on Announcing the Jay Leno-Jimmy Fallon 'Tonight Show' Swap Tonight?

Unlike Variety, Popculturology realizes that today is April Fool's Day, so we're looking at every bit of pop culture news very skeptically today. That said, we're going to try to put together a couple of pieces of news related to the upcoming change of hosts at The Tonight Show and offer the possibility that NBC is going to make the news official tonight.

Late Night always posts previews of its upcoming episodes on YouTube, so it wasn't unusual that the show released a preview of Monday night's show. What is unusual is that the clip includes both Jimmy Fallon and Jay Leno, with Leno calling Fallon after escaping an ambush of reporters looking for information about the future of The Tonight Show. The clip has Fallon answering a phone call from "Host of The Tonight Show" and wraps up with Fallon saying, "Hey, Jay." Cut to black.



Yes, it's April Fool's Day, but the Late Night YouTube account debunked that idea on YouTube, writing, "Excuse the date — we promise the full clip will air tonight." On top of that, Late Night writer Mike DiCenzo tweeted the following at 8:50 p.m.:

Please tune in tonight to the end of Leno and the beginning of Fallon. #latenighthistory #strangelypoignant

Don't forget that Late Night airs at 12:35 a.m., which means for New York City, where the show is taped, April Fool's Day will be over. If Leno and Fallon were interested in just spoofing the latest Tonight Show situation, they would open The Tonight Show with Fallon sitting in as host. If whatever's happening happens at the end of Tonight Show and the beginning of Late Night, it's meant to bridge the two shows. Is this NBC's way of officially announcing that Fallon will take over hosting duties from Leno in 2014?