Update: For those keeping score, The Tonight Show ended up starting at 2:01 a.m. ET Monday night, while Late Night started at 3:03 a.m..
For the third time in a week, NBC’s NBA playoff coverage is sending The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers into after-hours territory.
Monday’s playoff tripleheader across NBC and Peacock is expected to push the network’s late-night lineup deep into the early morning hours, with The Tonight Show currently scheduled to begin no earlier than 1:30 a.m. ET following the network’s late game between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves. Late Night with Seth Meyers would follow immediately afterward.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because NBC late-night viewers just went through the same thing last week.
Last Monday night, playoff coverage delayed The Tonight Show until 2:08 a.m. ET—the latest start time for the franchise in at least three decades. Late Night with Seth Meyers, likewise, didn’t begin until 3:10 a.m.
Things weren’t much better the following night. Tuesday’s playoffs again pushed both shows well past their regularly scheduled start times, with The Tonight Show beginning around 2 a.m. and Meyers again airing after 3 a.m.
The repeated disruptions come as NBC continues its first postseason under the NBA’s new media rights agreement, which returned league games to the network for the first time in more than two decades—and has created an unusual scheduling headache for its traditional late-night lineup.
For those willing to ride out another marathon NBA night, both The Tonight Show and Late Night have strong guest lineups waiting on the other side, with Stanley Tucci, Brenda Song, and Diljit Dosanjh set to join Fallon, followed by Rose Byrne and Ebon Moss-Bachrach on Meyers—whenever the shows actually make it to air.
Visit our lineups area for updated guest listings for all the late-night shows, and subscribe to our daily newsletter to receive stories like this in your inbox.
