NBC Assigns Veteran Producer to Clean Up Jimmy Fallon’s Ratings Mess

At a crucial moment in late-night television, a new showrunner is taking over “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” a onetime ratings winner that lost its lead in total viewers soon after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

A 27-year veteran of NBC, Jim Bell, will become the so-called executive in charge at the “The Tonight Show” immediately, the network said on Wednesday.

Bell is taking over the program at a time when “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” is not only dominating the late-night ratings, but is also cutting into Fallon’s lead among a group of viewers prized by advertisers: adults between the ages of 18 and 49.

Fallon took over “The Tonight Show” from Jay Leno in 2014. His cheerful, enthusiastic style made him the leader in total viewers until the spring of 2017, when Colbert leapfrogged him in the Nielsen ratings.

Bell, a longtime executive producer of “Today,” is not only a producer but a bona fide network executive. He has a big title: president, NBC Olympics production and programming.

By installing him at “The Tonight Show,” NBC is employing a strategy that had success at CBS.

Two years ago, CBS hired Chris Licht, the executive producer of “CBS This Morning,” to take over Colbert’s then-struggling show. Like Licht in the time before he took that job, Bell has no experience in late night.

In the 2 1/2 years since Licht started working with Colbert, the viewership for “The Late Show” has skyrocketed, while the number of people watching Fallon’s program has dropped precipitously.

At “The Late Show,” Licht helped the host play to his strengths as a political satirist, insisting that he focus on the news, which was Colbert’s bread and butter when he hosted “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central. After Trump entered the White House, Colbert started to build ratings momentum as Fallon lost viewers.

NBC officials insisted on Wednesday that Bell would not try to make Fallon emphasize the news of the day. Instead, the “Saturday Night Live” alumnus is expected to continue to lean into his fun-and-games persona.

In the new television season, which started a month ago, Colbert’s show is averaging 3.6 million viewers, dwarfing the 2.4 million who tune in for “The Tonight Show.” A saving grace for Fallon is that he has held onto a larger percentage of adult viewers under 50, the rating point that matters most to advertisers.

Even through his ratings struggles, Fallon has remained the most-watched late-night host among young adults. But his lead in that key demographic is slipping. The latest measure has “The Tonight Show” scoring just a tenth of a ratings point more than its CBS rival. That’s the closest the margin has been since Colbert took over “The Late Show” from David Letterman in 2015.

Before the arrival of Bell, “The Tonight Show” was run by a triumvirate of producers: Mike DiCenzo, Katie Hockmeyer and Gerard Bradford. On Monday, DiCenzo announced on Twitter that he was stepping down after 10 years with Fallon. Hockmeyer, who is to go on maternity leave soon, will stay on as a top producer. Bradford is expected to have a different producing role at the show.

Lorne Michaels, the creator and longtime executive producer of “Saturday Night Live,” will keep his title of executive producer of “The Tonight Show.” Michaels is also the executive producer of the program that follows it on NBC, “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”