REPORT: Jimmy Fallon Closes Deal to Take Over 'The Tonight Show,' Seth Meyers Is Favorite for 'Late Night'

If The Hollywood Reporter has its facts straight, it sounds like Jimmy Fallon is one NBC announcement away from becoming the next host of The Tonight Show. The site is reporting that Fallon has closed a deal to take over the late-night franchise from Jay Leno.

After Fallon and Leno sang a duet about the future of The Tonight Show during Monday night's episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, it became clear that this transition was not only happening, but that Leno had resigned himself to it. It's still unclear when NBC will pull the trigger on the switch. As Popculturology reported last month, the network was still trying to decide between a February or fall date. The Hollywood Reporter is now saying that "some at NBC said to believe that the network should wait to confirm the Tonight transition until it can close a deal with Fallon’s replacement."

And who would the favorite be to replace Fallon at Late Night? According to The Hollywood Reporter, the job is Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Update host Seth Meyers' "unless something goes awry [in the dealmaking.]" For those of you keeping score at home, Popculturology pegged Meyers as the top candidate to follow Fallon at Late Night when we tackled the big questions surrounding the upcoming late-night TV changes on March 21, which was before his name started coming up in sourced reports.