Jay Leno Offers Congratulations, Advice To Jimmy Fallon

Jay Leno is offering a warm welcome to his Tonight Show successor.

After it was made official that late night host Jimmy Fallon will be taking over the help of the NBC Tonight Show franchise, Jay Leno congratulated Fallon and offered some tongue-in-cheek advice.

“I just have one request of Jimmy,” Leno said in his monologue on Wednesday night. “We’ve all fought, kicked and scratched to get this network up to fifth place, okay? Now we have to keep it there. Jimmy don’t let it slip into sixth. We’re counting on you.”

Leno will end his 22-year tenure as the show’s host next year, and Jimmy Fallon has been tapped to replace him. There will also be some changes to the Tonight Show itself. NBC announced that it will be leaving the network’s studios in Burbank, California, to return to its original home in New York City (where Fallon currently broadcasts his show).

Jay Leno’s pleasant interaction with Fallon is different than his last exit from the host chair. Just a few years ago the network announced that Conan O’Brien would become the Tonight Show host, but Leno decided he wanted to stay on the air and instead the network crafted a 10 o’clock version of his talk show. It drew poor ratings.

Within a few months NBC moved Leno back into the Tonight Show spot, with Conan O’Brien leaving for TBS. The transition also led to bad blood between Leno and Conan, one that spilled over to other late night comedians and drew viewers to take sides.

The transition to Jimmy Fallon is a logical one. He has a more youth-oriented show, with technology segments and in-house band The Roots. By comparison, Leno draws and older crowd and is losing the younger audience to competitors.

“The more time Jimmy Kimmel is in that slot, the more the young audience goes that way, the harder it is for (Fallon) to keep that audience,” a source told The Hollywood Reporter in March.

Jay Leno makes his official exit from the Tonight Show in spring 2014.