Here’s What’s Coming: NBC Moves FAST To Save Jimmy Fallon As Colbert’s Sudden Exit Sends Late-Night Into CHAOS

CBS announced earlier this year that the transition of viewers moving away from linear TV greatly affected the revenue of the network’s late-night programs to the point where they’re calling it quits(Image: Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)

Special guests on NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon isn’t always a Hollywood superstar, but now will sometimes be an advertiser.

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During Monday’s show the company Ford Motor Co. landed a front-facing spot inside of the television program when the show included an episode taped at the Detroit Opera House holding an audience of Ford employees and partners. People who were tuning in for the comfort of their own home likely saw video segments throughout the episode of host Jimmy acknowledging the car brand and a new campaign, Ford’s Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Materazzo told Variety.

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Ford Motor Co. will have a hard-to-miss role in the program Monday evening, which will show an episode taped at the Detroit Opera House filled with an audience of Ford employees and partners. Home viewers are likely to see video segments threaded across the episode with Fallon nodding to the automaker and a new campaign, says Lisa Materazzo, Ford’s chief marketing officer, ahead of Monday night’s episode.

Stephen Colbert accepts the Outstanding Talk Series Award for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” onstage during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 i(Image: Getty Images)

“What we like to do is tell stories, and Jimmy is the same,” Lisa remarked to the news outlet. “He does it in such creative ways that it really lands well with the audience.”

For years advertisers have been begging late-night hosts to do live commercials on their programs in addition to asking them to do sketches that spotlight certain products.

Given the ever-changing media landscape, it might become a necessity that hosts do specialized advertisements. Viewership is being greatly affected by younger viewers choosing to watch the shows at their own times opposed to tuning into linear television to see it when it airs live.

More commonly, younger audiences normally catch Jimmy and his fellow late-night hosts on YouTube or other social media platforms.

Jimmy Kimmel look on as he loses to Stephen Colbert(Image: CBS)

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According to Variety, there have been budget cuts amid advertisers on the money shelled out to having spots on late-night TV. In 2018, advertisers spread $439 million across the Big 5 late-night shows at the time: the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS, Tonight with Jimmy Fallon, and Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC, and Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, according to Guide, which is a tracker for ad spending.

However, as of 2024, that spending has been sliced in almost half, going down to $220.6 million.

CBS announced earlier this year that the transition of viewers moving away from linear TV greatly affected the revenue of the network’s late-night programs to the point where they’re calling it quits.

On top of shutting down After Midnight, CBS announced in July that the long-running Late Show that David Letterman started and Stephen Colbert is currently hosting would end in May 2026.