‘The Tonight Show’ Drops Friday, Goes Down To Four Originals A Week

NBC‘s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will join ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS’ Late Show With Stephen Colbert and NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers in scaling back to four nights of originals a week starting this season.

The move is believed to be driven by cost-cutting, which also was behind the decision to drop Late Night’s house band earlier this summer.

The Tonight Show had been airing original episodes Monday-Friday during the regular season, doing two tapings on Thursday, while switching to Monday-Thursday first-run shows during the summer. The off-season schedule will now carry over to the rest of the year.

Once a daily staple, broadcast late-night shows have been feeling the pinch from the erosion of linear viewing, with the majority of late-night content consumed in the form of video clips online. The other remaining broadcast late-night talkers gradually made the transition to four shows a week. Comedy Central’s The Daily Show has always been on a four-show-a-week pattern.

Earlier this year, NBC renewed its deal with Fallon to continue as host of The Tonight Show through 2028.

The news of The Tonight Show‘s retreat was first reported by USA Today.