According to Bill Carter’s new book, The War for Late Night, when NBCU Chairman Jeff Gaspin phoned the Late Night brain trust – Lorne Michaels, Fallon, producer Michael Shoemaker – to inform them of the possibility of moving their show back 30 minutes to 1am, they acceded, with Shoemaker telling Gaspin “We love what we’re doing. Don’t worry about us.”  And that idea, that they love what they’re doing, is so obvious, and is also contagious.  Already somewhat left to their own devices at 12:30am, a move to 1am probably wouldn’t impact them that much, as long as they got to keep producing the same slick videos and playing the same silly audience games.  Whereas we argued in an earlier post that while Conan is changing the late night game by moving to basic cable, it’s Fallon who’s genuinely doing something different with his hour.  And for all the talk of the Team Coco and I’m with Coco web campaigns, it’s Fallon who has truly embraced new media (launching an online version of Late Night before debuting the broadcast show, hosting one of the best blogs on the net, as a couple of examples).  As he’s gone on record saying, Fallon doesn’t really care when his show airs, because his audience will find him on their DVRs or online.  Of course, if the product isn’t good, no one will watch, even if the show is readily available through several media outlets.  Luckily for Jimmy Fallon and Late Night, their product is real good.

And for more on the subject, you’d be a fool not to read this much more illuminating profile of Jimmy Fallon in this week’s New York Magazine.  He also graces the cover, adorably: