Shoemaker to showrun 'Late Night'
'SNL' vet worked closely with Fallon in past
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Shoemaker's appointment had been expected since May, when Fallon was first officially announced as Conan O'Brien's replacement on "Late Night." Shoemaker worked closely with Fallon for years on "SNL," having overseen the "Weekend Update" segment that Fallon co-anchored.
Shoemaker has also served as a consultant for Fallon when the comedian has hosted kudofests such as the MTV Video Music Awards.
"Jimmy and I work together all the time, and we've always had fun in the process," Shoemaker said. "I have a nice job here at 'Saturday Night Live' but I couldn't turn down the chance to work on something like this." Shoemaker will serve as producer under "Late Night" exec producer Lorne Michaels.
"Mike was at the center of all things good at 'Saturday Night Live' for the last 20 years," Michaels said.
Shoemaker, who first joined "SNL" in 1986, will do double duty in the fall, developing "Late Night" while simultaneously working on "SNL's" hefty slate of Thursday-night primetime specials and consecutive weekly Saturday-night episodes leading up to the election.
"Those are going to kill me," Shoemaker said. "I'm going to work until I drop. But if I can live through this, I can live through 25 seasons of 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.'"
Shoemaker will also oversee Fallon's nightly webcasts this fall. They're being treated as practice runs before Fallon takes the "Late Night" gig next spring.
"Being able to do five minutes a day online for months is so appealing; that's where you can try things and find out what sticks," Shoemaker said. Shoemaker said he doesn't have a grand plan to "reinvent" the latenight space.
"We're going to do Jimmy's version of what a talk show is," he said.
The real work will begin after Fallon returns from Detroit, where he's currently shooting the feature "Whip It" with Drew Barrymore.
