NBC hoping to keep Jay Leno around … even after exit

For those of you who were excited for whatever reason at the thought of Jay Leno’s tenure at NBC comedy to an end with “The Tonight Show,” be ready to prepare yourself for something that could make the eyes pop out of your head: More evidence that even though the comedian may be leaving his late-night time slot, he is not necessarily saying goodbye to the network for good.

Today marked NBC’s day to shine while at the TCA summer press tour, and president Robert Greenblatt was just about as complimentary as possible when talking about Leno; not only that, but he suggested that we could be seeing much more of him in the future for some variety specials:

“Nothing would make us happier than to have him — a la Bob Hope — stay on the network, and he’s got a lot of ideas.”

Yes, that’s right: Jay Leno and Bob Hope are apparently the same thing. Who knew?

Meanwhile, Greenblatt also did explain why he wanted to make the transition over to Jimmy Fallon in conjunction with the winter Olympics airing next year, and it simply seems to just be a result of trying to find the right launching pad:

“The big strategic discussions, we’ve been having those discussions since I arrived here … We knew that we had a platform in the Olympics in the season that we weren’t going to have again for four years. We wanted to make the transition when the time period was really strong to give Jimmy Fallon the best chance of succeeding.”

When this transition happens, Fallon will be replaced by the new late-night show hosted by Seth Meyers. Want to read more about Leno’s end at NBC? We have a few video highlights for you, beginning with this link here.

Photo: NBC