Lorne Michaels: The Man Behind Modern Comedy

09:39

February 05, 2014

Jimmy Falon, Lorne Michaels, and Seth Meyers are pictured on January 12, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for NBCUniversal)

Thursday will be Jay Leno's last night as the host of "The Tonight Show." Jimmy Fallon will be taking over about a week later, after special programming for the Olympics. Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update will be taking over for Fallon on "Late Night."

While it's all new faces onstage, one man is pulling all the strings: Lorne Michaels. With this change, he'll be in charge of all late night programming at NBC.

Lane Brown of New York Magazine sat down with Michaels recently. Brown tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson that even though Michaels is in control of a lot of programming, he has no plan for stepping down.

"He told me that he's got a lighting guy in his 90s and the announcer for SNL is 95 years old," Brown said. "Pretty soon he may have to deal with replacing those guys, but as for him, he has no succession plan."

Read Lane Brown's interview with Lorne Michaels

Guest

Lane Brown, culture editor for New York Magazine. He tweets @LaneBrown.

This segment aired on February 5, 2014.