Has Jimmy Fallon gone mad with power since taking over ‘The Tonight Show’?

I just wanted Jimmy Fallon to sound villainous! I don’t actually think this is on him, at least not entirely. First of all, it’s somewhat common for the big late night shows to “block” their guests from appearing on competing shows. Like, in the old days, if you were an average top-tier celebrity, you would only do Leno or Letterman, not both. Letterman wouldn’t want you if you had done Leno, and vice versa. But TMZ reports that with the successful transition to Jimmy Fallon hosting The Tonight Show, the people at NBC have gone mad with power:

NBC is coming down like a hammer on celebs who want to get on Jimmy Fallon’s show … if they dare do a show on CBS or ABC … they can forget about “The Tonight Show.”

Sources connected to CBS, NBC and ABC tell TMZ … the Peacock network believes Jimmy Fallon’s ratings success gives them extreme bargaining power. They put the word out to celebs, agents and publicists … if they want to be on Fallon they can’t appear on ANY other network … and not just shows that go head-to-head with Jimmy, but morning shows as well.

We’re told NBC is saying the stars who go on Fallon are also allowed to appear on “Today,” “Dateline” and any similar shows they air, but that’s it.

A GMA source tells TMZ … they’ve already gotten fallout from people they were trying to book.

Fallon is dominating late night …. crushing Jimmy Kimmel by bringing in more than twice the number of viewers.

[From TMZ]

It’s reasonably typical for a celebrity to stick with one network during a promotional trail – saying that they’ll appear on the Today Show, the Tonight Show and nothing else. But there’s a difference between it being a “common practice” versus “NBC is ordering it.” And what if a celebrity is trying to get booked for, say, The Daily Show or The Colbert Report? Comedy Central is Viacom, right? Which owns CBS too. So, you can choose CBS Morning, Letterman and The Daily Show. Or you can choose Today and Fallon. Or you can choose GMA and Kimmel. It’s starting to get crazy, y’all.

Photos courtesy of WENN.