One of the most important guests in the history of NBC’s “Tonight Show” isn’t a movie or TV star and probably won’t play any games on set with the host.
Ford Motor Co. will have a hard-to-miss role in the program Monday evening, which will show an episode taped at the Detroit Opera House filled with an audience of Ford employees and partners. Home viewers are likely to see video segments threaded across the episode with Fallon nodding to the automaker and a new campaign, says Lisa Materazzo, Ford’s chief marketing officer.
“What we like to do is tell stories, and Jimmy is the same,” says the marketing executive. “He does it in such creative ways that it really lands well with the audience.”
Advertisers have been asking late-night hosts for years to do live commercials on their popular shows or create sketches that put a spotlight on specific products. But the hosts’ desire to do such bits may become more important as the economics of wee-hours TV are undermined by viewers’ growing interest in watching programs at times of their own choosing, not when the networks tell them they must. Many young viewers tend to look at Fallon and his late-night contemporaries on YouTube or other social-media outlets.
That has spurred cutbacks in the amount of money advertisers spend on late-night TV, long seen as a media institution in the U.S. Advertisers committed around $439 million to five late night shows on broadcast TV in 2018 — “Late Show” and “Late Late Show” on CBS; “Tonight” and “Late Night” on NBC; and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC — according to Guideline, a tracker of ad spending. By 2024, those dollars had slumped 49.8% to $220.6 million.
CBS said earlier this year that the migration of viewers out of linear TV had crimped the financials of late-night programs so much that it was getting out of the business entirely. The Paramount-backed network scrapped “After Midnight,” a 12:30 a.m. show, after host Taylor Tomlinson decided to return to stand up, opting to fill the hour with a syndicated comedy roundtable from entrepreneur Byron Allen that people familiar with the matter will result in CBS getting paid to put the show on its air. CBS raised eyebrows further in July by announcing it would cancel its long-running “Late Show,” launched by David Letterman and currently hosted by Stephen Colbert, in May of next year — despite the show’s first place standing in the ratings.
NBC may see millions of dollars in advertising that it can win over to its side. Colbert’s “Late Show” captured more than $57 million in 2024, according to data from ad-tracker iSpot TV, and more than $61 million in 2023. Fallon’s “Tonight” typically brings more ad money than either Colbert or ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” according to iSpot, with “Tonight: wining $78 million in 2024 and $104.7 million in 2023.
NBC has more tied to late-night TV than its rival. The Comcast-backed network created the format, launching “Tonight” in 1954, “Tomorrow” in 1973 with host Tom Snyder, and “Late Night” in 1982 with David Letterman. NBC has also been home for half a century to late-night weekend showcase “Saturday Night Live,” which is one of TV’s biggest non-sports draws for the audiences between 18 and 49 that advertisers say they covet.,
“You have marketers who are looking for ways to really grab attention and link with intellectual property that matters, whether that’s with a personality or a show like ‘Love Island’ or sports,” says Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal. When a late-night host teams up with an advertiser, he adds, the results can also appear outside the show and appeal to various followings on social media. “Anything that can travel with the personality is what they are looking for,” he says of marketers.
NBC worked with a select group of advertisers during last season’s 50th anniversary of “SNL,” brokering deals that called for executive producer Lorne Michaels, cast members and writers to create commercials with sponsors including Allstate and T-Mobile. “We will absolutely continue to find new ways to partner with all of the late-night shows,” says Marshall. “We are having some conversations with Seth Meyers and some different advertisers as well.”
Ford has worked with NBC and “Tonight” for five years, with Fallon taking an increasingly bigger interest in the types of work his staff does for the auto giant. He maintains a relationship with Ford CEO Jim Farley and meets with Ford executives regularly to find out what products and initiatives are top of mind. In the past, Fallon’s team created a video that had the host raising a “baby Bronco,” and another that spotlighted the electric F-150 Lighting and its “front trunk,” or “frunk,” complete with an accompanying song and music video.
“When you have a partner who is truly interested in co-creating with you,” says Materazzo, the result “is not cookie cutter. It’s not a one size fits all program and that’s what we love about it.”
Such alliances must be crafted carefully, says Marshall. Though Fallon has done work with State Farm and Walmart, among others, and is likely to create a new concept for Ford once every quarter, NBC can’t overwhelm “Tonight” with advertising, no matter how much work the host puts into the ideas. “Consumers start to tune them out when they see it day after day after day,” he says.
Fallon’s interest in advertising is poised to gain more notice. The host is at the center of a new NBC reality compete show, “On Brand with Jimmy Fallon,” that will have him spending each hour-long episode working on a new marketing assignment for clients including Dunkin’ and Captain Morgan.
How did he get the Madison Avenue bug? It’s unclear, but the host must have noticed marketers’ interest when he first started his tenure at “Tonight” in 2014. In Fallon’s earliest weeks, he discussed his interest in purchasing a new truck. Nissan, General Motors and Dodge’s Ram Trucks all issued tweets attempting to make a sale. Ram even parked one of its vehicles outside the “Tonight” studio at NBC’s venerable 30 Rockefeller Center headquarters with a sign asking the comic if the truck met with his approval. Among those making a pitch? Ford Motor Co.