Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Mixing Things Up for Football Season

Sagaponack’s Jimmy Fallon announced Thursday, August 8 that The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will air five special post–football game episodes on Sunday nights this fall. The show will also air live episodes every night during premier week, September 23–27.

This, and their other viewership-boosting tactics for the fall season are a clear bid to unseat The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from the top spot of late-night ratings. The Tonight Show lost the coveted spot following the 2018–2019 season, when CBS’ Late Show not only garnered higher overall viewership, but also more viewers in the under-50 demographic, which is hotly sought after by major advertisers. This fall’s efforts at redemption hope to take advantage of viewers who linger on the NBC channel following NFL games.

The first of these episodes will air following the season opener between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 8, with guests Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Kelly Clarkson and Kane Brown. There will also be post-game episodes on October 6, 20, 27 and on December 1. These will be taped ahead of time rather than live, and with no more time in the week to film, NBC will air reruns on Fridays which precede a post-game episode.

Hopefully, some East End guests will be announced in the coming weeks. For now, we’ll just have to keep re-watching last week’s hilarious Cue Card Cold read skit with Montauker Julianne Moore.

The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon can be watched every weeknight at 11:35 p.m. on NBC.