NBC to Get Tax Credit if Tonight Show Moves to NY
NBC may have another reason to kick Jay Leno to the curb and have Jimmy Fallon take over the Tonight Show.
A big Tax Credit.
Quietly tucked into tentative state budget is a provision that would help NBC move “The Tonight Show” back to New York, the Daily News has learned.
The provision would make state tax credits available for the producers of “a talk or variety program that filmed at least five seasons outside the state prior to its first relocated season in New York,” budget documents show.
In addition, the episodes “must be filmed before a studio audience” of at least 200 people. And the program must have an annual production budget of at least $30 million or incur at least $10 million a year in capital expenses.
In other words, a program exactly like “The Tonight Show.”
The iconic program is not identified by name in the documents, but reports are circulating that NBC is preparing to replace host Jay Leno with Fallon and move the granddaddy of late-night TV shows back to New York, which it left in 1972.