Leno and Fallon Poke Fun at Their Uncertain Fates

NBC’s two late-night stars, Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon, who have said nothing publicly about the rumors of a potential changing of the hosting guard at the “Tonight” show, got together Monday night to perform a rather romantic music video commentary on their much-publicized situation.

The video served as a crossover between the two shows, with Mr. Leno ending his real show Monday night and stepping into the video, which cut to Mr. Fallon sitting in his New York office, looking troubled by the headlines discussing his rumored takeover of the show.

Mr. Leno then placed a call to Mr. Fallon and they briefly chatted about the coverage, with Mr. Leno saying, “I gotta admit I’m getting a little sick of all this.”

Mr. Fallon pressed the issue by asking if they were still friends. That set off a parody of the song “Tonight,” starting with the introduction sung in “West Side Story” by Maria and Tony, all of which the late-night hosts lip-synched to voices that sounded like performers from a road company of “’Les Misérables.”

The lyrics included pretty straight references to the gist of the rumors, with Mr. Fallon citing the news about his appeal to younger viewers: “In the news, they say I’m replacing you, they think that I can woo, the demo.”

Mr. Leno sang back, “So the network says, here’s an idea: pack your bags, take a hike, NBC-ya!”

Mr. Fallon made reference to the nagging question: “Where will they tape ‘Tonight” Will it be New York Will it stay in LA”

Mr. Leno’s lyrics also cited his 20 years in first place in the ratings and included rumors that he might end up at Fox, or “maybe I could take over for Dave!”

(That Mr. Leno might succeed David Letterman on CBS is one of the more far-fetched musings in the media.)

But perhaps the most far-fetched lyric came in the final chorus as they harmonized operatically on the line “Tonight, tonight, who cares who hosts ‘Tonight’”