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And it's not that we like having these conversations every single goddamn time there's a vacancy anywhere on late-night television, one that is promptly filled by an affable white dude. Believe me, I'd love to write the "Hooray for this bold new era in television" story. But here we are again, America. With the official announcement Sunday that Meyers will be assuming the chair now occupied by Jimmy Fallon as host of "Late Night," our post-11 p.m. hours seem yet again to be largely safe, for the foreseeable future, from having any people of color or ovaries anywhere near them.

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As reported by the New York Times:

NBC made the appointment, which had been widely expected, one day before Mr. Meyers was to be introduced to advertisers at NBC’s presentation of its new programming lineup at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan.

The assignment will keep Mr. Meyers under the production leadership of Lorne Michaels, who will continue to serve as executive producer of “Late Night” as well as serving in the same position on Mr. Fallon’s “Tonight Show” as it moves to New York. (And of course, he will remain in charge of “SNL.”)

In an interview before taking the stage on Saturday’s edition of “SNL,” Mr. Meyers said, “Working at ‘SNL’ requires 100 percent of your mental capacity — on easy weeks. And so I had not really spent a lot of time thinking about what I was going to do next. Obviously I can’t quit Lorne. So this seems like a pretty good deal that I have an opportunity to keep working with him.”

While sentimental about leaving his home at "SNL," Meyers sees the move as a natural fit: “It always seemed like a logical next move,” he said. “It was just competing with the very emotional idea of leaving a place I have been for a very long time."

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On last night's "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," Scott announced that he plans to make three more this year, including one starring fellow "Parks and Recreation" actress Amy Poehler and former "SNL" cast member Horatio Sanz. (The only hint Scott would give: the parody is not of "Mork & Mindy.")

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The network announced Wednesday what has been rumored for the past several weeks: Leno will leave the job he's had most of the time since 1992, to be replaced by "Late Night" host Fallon. The late-night franchise is also returning to its roots, leaving California for a New York studio.

The thinking is clear: Leno is 62, his hair graying. The eager Fallon is 38, looks younger, hangs with his ultra-hip house band the Roots and slow jams the news with President Obama.

All Leno does is consistently rank No. 1 in his field, a status not many people at NBC can claim these days.

The "Today" show was tops a year ago, too, or at least running neck-and-neck with ABC's "Good Morning America." Then the toppling of co-host Ann Curry spread a black cloud. Ratings tumbled, executives lost their jobs, Matt Lauer's popularity plummeted and "GMA" is now the most popular morning show.

Could history repeat itself at the same network?

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Bill Carter's piece, which features interviews with both Fallon and Leno, is light on the sort of acrimony that distinguished the last "Tonight" changeover, when Conan O'Brien briefly replaced Leno in 2009.

"The main difference between this and the other time is I’m part of the process," said Leno, who engaged in a series of discussions with NBC executives over the past month. Leno has hosted the show (with a brief interruption during the O'Brien period, during which he hosted "The Jay Leno Show" on NBC) since 1992, when he succeeded Johnny Carson.

As for speculation that Leno will undercut the Fallon "Tonight Show" -- which is to return to New York -- with a show on Fox or another network, the venerable host leaves the door open somewhat. "Would I do it again? Believe me, the phone’s not ringing off the hook. It will be nice if people seem interested. But I’ll let it sit where it is."

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From THR:

"Still not clear is when exactly Fallon will take over Tonight. THR’s source says some NBC execs want to launch Fallon’s New York-based Tonight in February during network's high-rated Winter Olympics coverage, but producer Lorne Michaels is said to prefer to give Fallon a little more time. Plus, NBC would owe Leno a significant penalty if it took him off the air before his contract expires.

The timing and nature of the Fallon announcement also is said to be in flux, with 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."

Leno's contract is up September 2014.

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Fallon: Tonight, tonight, who's gonna host "Tonight"? Is it gonna be Jimmy or Jay? Tonight, tonight, where will they tape "Tonight"? In New York? Will it stay in L.A.?

Leno: Tonight, tonight, my ratings were all right. Twenty years, and I'm still in first place. Tonight, "Tonight", I've got Fox on the line. Or maybe I could take over for Dave?

In unison: Tonight, tonight. Why do they say we fight? I like you. You like me. We're okay. Tonight, tonight, who cares who hosts "Tonight"? We both just want our line the next day.

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The Leno-Letterman rivalry, which, unlike the incipient Fallon-Kimmel rivalry, has a lot of personal animosity behind it, has long since coalesced into a narrative: Leno is popular and a hack. Letterman is popular and not a hack. Leno is the choice of the masses. Letterman is the choice of the slightly more discerning viewer. Leno has a chin. Letterman has irony. Letterman may be on CBS, but Leno is the CBS-type property, hugely popular but no good, the late night equivalent of “Two and a Half Men.”

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Offerman revealed his old crew, which consisted of him as Tick Tock, known for his "propensity for popping and locking" and his cousin, Flip Flop, who had "more of a knack for the acrobatics."

And then Offerman and Fallon broke it down:

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From the New York Post:

"we’re told that “Saturday Night Live” head writer and 'Weekend Update' host Seth Meyers will move into Fallon’s late-night slot. A source told us, 'Lorne Michaels wants Seth to take over from Fallon. It would be perfect for him. Tina Fey’s name had also come up, but she has said she was too busy to do it.' "

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He asked the audience, “Are you all excited about March Madness?”

“People are talking about who’s in, who’s out, who’s gonna be eliminated. And that’s just here at NBC," he said. "I’ve never been in the paper this much. It’s fantastic.”

But Leno might have a new home at Fox, which has been wanting to start its own late-night show for some time, now. Steve Pruett, the board chairman of Fox, told the New York Post that “If Fox were to present the right business plan, the affiliate board would be interested" in signing Leno onto the network.

The Post explains:

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The host of NBC's "Tonight Show" continues to lead in the ratings: In the just-concluded February sweeps period, Leno led CBS's "Late Show" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" among total viewers and viewers in the key 18-49 demographic.

The news for Leno isn't entirely good, though: The margin of victory in the most recent sweeps month (by which advertising rates are set) over longtime rival David Letterman in the key demographic was just 8 percent. And Leno's viewership, as is the case across the late-night dial, is disproportionately outside the young viewers advertisers court: With 1.003 million viewers out of 3.510 million under 50, only 29 percent or so of his viewers are actually in the age group to whom media buyers want to sell products. That's part of what BuzzFeed means when it describes Leno as not "cool" -- he's popular, but not among coastal elites, and also not among the sort of young viewers any network wants.

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It's been over three years now since NBC had its last very public and emotional meltdown over the throne of "The Tonight Show." Conan O'Brien had moved to Hollywood and assumed the helm for a brief, fateful seven months before a network-wide attack of tsuris that gave the world the gloating late night return of Jay Leno and the phrase "Team Coco." It was not the first time the Peacock had displayed its unwavering fixation on Leno as the One True successor to Carson – as anyone who's watched Letterman play the droll role of jilted lover over the past two decades knows. But the O'Brien affair seemed to solidify NBC's romance with Leno even further, planting him as firmly and permanently as host of "The Tonight Show" as a pope in the chair of St. Peter. And we all know how that turned out. 

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NBC confirmed Wednesday it's creating a new studio for Fallon in New York, where he hosts "Late Night." But the network did not comment on a report that the digs at its Rockefeller Plaza headquarters may become home to a transplanted, Fallon-hosted "Tonight."

The New York Times reported the plan in a Wednesday story, citing unidentified network executives. The Hollywood Reporter had a March 1 report about a Fallon-Leno switch, which was denied by the network.

Looming over NBC is its messy, failed effort to replace Leno with Conan O'Brien, which ended in 2010 with Leno regaining "Tonight" and NBC losing O'Brien — who got a $45 million exit deal — to TBS. Leno's current "Tonight" contract expires in September 2014.

That occurred under a different regime, before NBCUniversal was taken over by Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp., which has a reputation for discipline. While NBC dithered and backtracked on its "Tonight" succession plan involving O'Brien, Comcast is likely to be more decisive.

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This means that Jay Leno would be out of a job -- a situation he's found himself in before, when he was replaced by Conan O'Brien (who, like Fallon, anchored the 12:35 a.m. "Late Night"). Leno twisted NBC's arm, then, to give him a show at 10 p.m. (threatening to move and bring his legions of fans to another network), and the low ratings of the prime-time show led to O'Brien's low ratings. Leno returned months after his farewell "Tonight Show" appearance.

Leno, who lately has been making news for his sharp critiques of NBC's ratings and executives, is one of the network's few durable stars; he leads the ratings against David Letterman on CBS and the newly-installed Jimmy Kimmel on ABC.

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But Jay Leno, somehow, may be crossing a line on "The Tonight Show." Some three years after his reinstatement as that program's host and the dismissal of O'Brien, the host has called NBC executives "snakes" and, last night, mocked the network's bottom-of-the-barrel ratings. (Indeed, late night and the evening news broadcasts are the only elements of the schedule NBC consistently wins.) David Letterman's jokey prank phone calls with CBS president Les Moonves this isn't; indeed, NBC head Robert Greenblatt has reportedly asked Leno to desist.

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