Jimmy Fallon has been a familiar face on NBC from his earliest days on Saturday Night Live in the late '90s, continuing with The Tonight Show and soon with yet another show. On Brand with Jimmy Fallon arrives in primetime in fall of the 2025 TV schedule, just a couple of months after another late night TV host got bad news about his series. The Late Show will end for Stephen Colbert in 2026, and the timing of On Brand as NBC ramps up the promotion really makes me wish that Colbert had another project in primetime that could continue even after The Late Show ends for good on CBS.
On Brand with Jimmy Fallon premieres on NBC on Tuesday, September 30 at 10 p.m. ET before moving to its regular time slot of Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on October 3. He hosts the unscripted reality competition series, which will feature contestants working at the show's "On Brand Agency" with major brands that are looking for new ad campaigns. NBC has begun pushing On Brand during primetime broadcasts, with several ads airing during commercial breaks of America's Got Talent's latest live episode. (The network started to do the same with commercials for Peacock's The Paper earlier this week.)
And it's great for Fallon's biggest fans that he'll be on the small screen for an extra hour while On Brand runs this fall. Everybody's tastes in unscripted comedy are different, and I personally prefer Seth Meyers' interview style to Fallon's elsewhere in NBC's late night block. To each their own! (Both The Tonight Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers are likely safe from cancellation for now.) But seeing Fallon getting such a boost makes it sting a little harder that his late night counterpart over on CBS is running out of time.
The cancellation of The Late Show came as a huge shock back in July, with financial reasons cited for why the long-running series would end in 2026. Comedians across the industry spoke up in support of Stephen Colbert, including Jimmy Fallon, who wrote that the Daily Show vet is "one of the sharpest, funniest hosts to ever do it." The cancellation will seemingly remove Colbert from the network altogether, and any bridges between him and network execs may have been burned if rumors are to be believed.
The finale of The Late Show in 2026 could be the last time Colbert appears on CBS in any major way... unless we expect his upcoming appearance on Elsbeth to be ongoing, and celebrity guest stars on Carrie Preston's dramedy generally aren't alive and/or free from the cops by the end of episodes. In all seriousness, while I can't see Colbert as the host of a show quite like On Brand with Jimmy Fallon, seeing Fallon all over NBC just makes me wish that there was a series of some sort to keep Colbert on the airwaves on network TV beyond next year.
Who knows? Maybe Colbert could follow the examples of other Daily Show vets and adapt his comedy talents to a different medium, like Jon Stewart (who fiercely defended his friend after the Late Show cancellation) did on streaming with his Apple TV+ series for two seasons and John Oliver is doing with great success on HBO with Last Week Tonight. All I know for certain is that I'll miss having Colbert regularly on television, especially in contrast to NBC supporting so many Jimmy Fallon projects.
