Jimmy Fallon has realized the latest fringe benefit from his job as host of Late Night: he’s signed on as the host of the 62nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards. The Emmy Awards will air on August 29th, on NBC.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this news is that it represents a new wrinkle in the Conan O’Brien/Jay Leno debacle. The last two times NBC aired the Emmy Awards — 2002 and 2006 — O’Brien was the host they hired for the job. After O’Brien moved on from Late Night to the Tonight Show — a story which we all know ends with O’Brien’s removal from that job so Leno could have it back — Fallon was hired to take O’Brien’s old seat at Late Night.
So effectively, NBC has replaced O’Brien with Fallon twice now.