Fallon set to succeed O’Brien

“Saturday Night Live” veteran Jimmy Fallon will take Conan O’Brien’s place on NBC next year when O’Brien succeeds Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show,” a person familiar with the deal said.

Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter both reported that a formal announcement of plans to install Fallon in O’Brien’s place as host of NBC’s “Late Night” show would likely come next month.

Fallon, 33, will complete an NBC talent shuffle set in motion when the network announced in 2004 that Leno would retire from “Tonight” in 2009 and that O’Brien would replace him.

NBC and Fallon’s publicist had no comment.