Jay Leno is heading back to TV, and he’ll stay within the NBCUniversal family.
The former long-term “Tonight Show” host will take his talents to CNBC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show will air regularly and center around Leno’s much-publicized love affair with cars.
It will air in primetime, as opposed to the late-night landscape that Leno dominated for many years at parent network NBC. No start date has been decided at this point.
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CNBC is not commenting on the reports, representatives told TheWrap. Leno’s personal rep, Dick Guttman, told us that he hasn’t been in touch with his client since the stand-up’s most recent USO Tour of Afghanistan. However, he said it would be a good get for the financial news channel based on the ratings for “Jay Leno‘s Garage: The Ultimate Car Week,” which aired earlier this year on CNBC.
Leno passed the “Tonight Show” torch to Jimmy Fallon in February, a succession that has gone significantly smoother than the hand-off to Conan O’Brien in 2009. Fallon has done Leno proud, staying atop the ratings and even growing from year-to-year.