Jimmy Fallon's First Tonight Show Was 7 Years Ago Today

On February 17th, 2014, Jimmy Fallon began hosting The Tonight Show, succeeding Jay Leno, who had just wrapped up his long tenure that was only briefly interrupted by Conan O'Brien's tumultuous 7-month run. Fallon had taken over the 12:35 PM Late Night show after O'Brien moved up in 2009 after 16 years there, so it was somewhat surprising that Fallon would move up to the 11:35 PM slot after only five years. 

Hence this clip from the first episode, where he claims that his "buddy" owes him $100 for claiming that he'd never host The Tonight Show. Cue a long string of celebrity "buddies" coming out to wordlessly slap C-notes on the desk, including Robert De Niro, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Joe Namath, Joan Rivers, Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, and Sarah Jessica Parker. The parade ends ironically enough with Stephen Colbert, who was still hosting The Colbert Report at the time, taking a selfie and greeting him with a warm "Welcome to 11:30, bitch!" (That was TCR's air-time as well). Less than two months later, David Letterman would announce his retirement from CBS's Late Show, and Colbert would be named his successor, and thus Fallon's major network competition. 

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.