In fact, Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, NBC Entertainment co-chairmen, were specifically asked about dealing with Leno being offered a gig elsewhere that would compete with the Tonight Show. “We really believe in the decisions we’ve made with our partners, including Jay” said Silverman.

Fool.

O’Brien will bomb and Leno will kill Tonight if he inks with the correct network, who LALATE believes is ABC, rather than Fox.

Graboff added, “we’ve made our decision, we’re happy with it, we’re very confident the `Tonight’ show will remain dominant in its time period.”

Jimmy Fallon will take over O’Brien’s “Late Night” in March or April of 2009.

The possibilities of what could happen to Leno who doesn’t want to stop doing latenight have been covered before on LALATE.

Fox is a possibility but it doesn’t have all its local markets locked up for a latenight gig overnight. ABC is the best bet, but would have to shift Jimmy Kimmel’s timeslot. And lastly, NBC could do “a Tom Brokaw” with Leno, keep him on staff with specials in the possibility that O’Brien tanks so badly that Leno is brought back to bat. Currently, Kimmel is rising in ratings, so ABC doesn’t want to mess that up.

LALATE’s current prediction: Fox will offer the most money, but ABC would make the most sense.

What does ABC say for the first time this week?

ABC Pres Steve McPherson: “I can’t believe they [NBC] are going to let this guy go at the top of his game. If that happens, I guess we’ll look at it and we will talk. And Jimmy will be involved in those discussions, and that will be that.”

Handler talks about how great Jay Leno was in bed, and Shatner, and how she longs to dine in a London restaurant that serves you in the dark … by blind people ….

… which sounds to LALATE like a staff meeting for a Ryan Seacrest reality show.

Warning about these videos: make sure you have your Kim Kardashian butt pads on because when you watch this video you will fall off the chair.

Do you like that (slightly) different live version of OMYH? LALATE really liked it!

If anyone attended the show live it would be interested to hear how fans reacted in person. … and are you happy that he performed OMYH or were you looking forward to hearing another song?

Post your comments.

But in the end it was the exchange of Jay N’ Clay that made this great programming. Aiken was quick with his responses that brought big audience laughs.

And then in part 2, Aiken hit the microphone. What song did he sing?

LALATE had asked you over the weekend want song you would like him to perform tonight and you responded in huge numbers. In the end, Clay went with “On My Way Here”.

The orchestration on this live performance totally rocked. If you like the cd version of this song, you will love this live version he delivered of the song tonight … and may end up pressing play over and over again.

LALATE has both videos for you from earlier tonight.

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