It’s been rumored for months now, and NBC has finally confirmed it this morning…Jimmy Fallon will take over for Conan O’Brian when the latter takes over for Jay Leno next year.

NBC released the following press statement:

NBC NAMES JIMMY FALLON AS HOST OF “LATE NIGHT” WHEN CONAN O’BRIEN TAKES OVER “THE TONIGHT SHOW” IN 2009

NEW YORK, May 12, 2008 – NBC has identified the last piece in its late night succession plan, naming Jimmy Fallon as the new host of “Late Night” when Conan O’Brien moves to “The Tonight Show” in 2009.

The announcement was made today by Marc Graboff and Ben Silverman, Co-Chairmen, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, at a press conference at the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center.

“We couldn’t be happier to have Jimmy back on NBC and to have our number one-rated late night team fully in place for the future,” said Silverman, “Jimmy is more than just a likeable guy and a great comedian, he is genuinely interested in what people have to say.”

“Jimmy’s proven track record and personality make him a natural for this important role that will bring a new generation of fans to ‘Late Night,’” said Graboff. “He will put his own distinct mark on late night humor just as he did on ‘SNL’ and in his other creative endeavors.”

Added Rick Ludwin, Executive Vice President, Late Night and Primetime Series, NBC Entertainment, “Simply put, Jimmy has all of the qualities for a late night host — in addition to being funny, he loves talking to people on and off camera, he’s a talented comedy writer and his time at ‘SNL’ demonstrated not only his ability to entertain, but also the work ethic and dedication it takes to succeed at hosting a nightly show.”

A recognized comic talent, Fallon has demonstrated an ability to deliver versatile, standout performances while always staying grounded in his stand-up roots.

Fallon first garnered attention in 1998 when he joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” and quickly became an audience favorite for his memorable recurring characters and spot-on impressions and in 2000, Fallon became the co-anchor of the “SNL’s” signature segment “Weekend Update” alongside Tina Fey.

Fallon ventured off into other television roles, including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s Emmy award-winning miniseries “Band of Brothers.” A favorite among the MTV audience, Fallon hosted the MTV Movie Awards twice and hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 2002. Fallon made an impressive turn guest hosting “The Late Show” for an ailing David Letterman in 2003.

Fallon made his feature film debut in Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” and went on to appear in numerous films including Woody Allen’s “Anything Else,” “Fever Pitch” opposite Drew Barrymore and the indie “Factory Girl.”

The premiere date for “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” will be announced at a later date. Lorne Michaels is executive producer. “Late Night” is a production of Universal Media Studios in association with Broadway Video. NBC is America’s Late Night Leader with the number one-rated “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “Last Call with Carson Daly” and “Saturday Night Live.”

Former co-star of “Hogan Know’s Best” and son of former WWE Champion and current American Gladiator’s host Hulk Hogan was convicted today of felony reckless driving involving serious bodily injury. Nick Hogan was driving during a car accident that has rendered John Graziano incapacitated for the rest of his life.

Hogan plead no contest to the charges and after several family members on both sides spoke Judge Philip Federico ruled that Nick will serve 8 months in Pinellas County Jail, serve 5 years of probation, and have his license suspended for 3 years.

Nick’s jail sentence begins today. If he serves all eight months he’ll be incarcerated until January 2009.

It looks like Allison Mack is trying her hand at negotiating a higher paycheck for the 8th season of Smallville. The actress is reportedly contemplating not returning for the next season of the “young Superman” show - and she may be using the loss of “Lana” and “Lex” as leverage.

I have some bad news for her, though. The Superman mythos has survived for a very long time with the trinity of Clark, Lois, and Jimmy - and if that happens next season it just might be the shot in the arm that the show needs to really be good again. The loss of Lex Luthor is, of course, a huge blow to the series, but the departure of Lana Lang is seen by many as a good thing. I am definitely one of those people. If this show wants to continue on, it is going to need a complete overhaul to make it work, and the switch to the classic Lois, Jimmy, and Clark trio is a great way to do just that.

This bid by Allison Mack might actually turn out to be a good thing, and breathe new life into the series. The more I think about it - the more I hope she doesn’t come back.

So there.

The new Knight Rider series may not look very much like the 2-hour telefilm that aired earlier this year. The tv movie received very good ratings, but most reviews were not terribly positive. To bring it to series NBC has hired “The Fast and the Furious” writer, and “Vegas” showrunner, Gary Scott Thompson, on board - and Gary is looking to make some major changes.

In a two part interview with Knight Rider online Mr. Thompson explains how he was disappointed with the pilot, and wasn’t interested in making that into a series. Characters from the pilot will carry over into the series (some of them will, anyway) and Mike will still be Michael Knight’s son, but the show is in for some big changes - and an upping on the tech and “cool” factor.

Mr. Thompson wants to look at where tech is going in the future and get some more futuristic gadgetry into the car. He wants it to be “fast, furious, and fun.”

Most importantly, to me anyway, he wants the show to be suitable for families. Pushing the envelope on what they can do with the cars and the action, while making it great for kids, and great for parents on a whole different level. I sincerely hope he succeeds with this -because that is one thing the pilot was definitely missing. We all knew Michael Knight was a ladies man, but you’d never see him wake up with two bimbos like Mike Tracer did in the pilot.

KITT will have a variety of new features, including some form of a Turbo Boost, but they’re not exactly sure what it will look like just yet. The show should also look a lot faster, with the cars moving at higher speeds than they did in the 2-hour pilot. He also said that the “Attack Mode” is going to be redesigned…and that design is going to be kept a secret for as long as humanly possible.

I’m more excited than ever for this series now. I enjoyed the pilot, but not everyone did - and it soulds like Mr. Thompson has a good idea on just how this show should be - and how it should play to today’s audiences. I’m looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

The AMPTP has broken off negotiations with the Screen Actor’s Guild over - you guessed it - DVD residuals, streaming, and new media.

There is also a sticking point where the AMPTP is demanding they get free and unlimited use of shot clips of an actor’s work in movies and television.

Both sides claim to have made concessions and to be negotiating fairly…blah, blah, blah…we’ve all heard this before.

Long story short - if they don’t get this handled by June 30th we could see an Actor’s Strike just like the Writer’s Strike we just got finished with - yippie.

In 2009 Marvel will be releasing a new animated series to coincide with the release of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. This new series is the first time Wolverine has ever been named “leader” of the X-Men, and appears to be based very heavily on the films (based on the voice talent), with costume influences from the recent “Astonishing X-Men” run.

No word yet on exactly when or where you’ll be seeing this show…but it is coming.

I can’t believe I just typed that headline.

First off, I love Dave Attell. His previous Comedy Central show, “Insomniac with Dave Attell” was like “Dirty Jobs” meets liver disease, and I loved it.

Now it looks like he’s coming back to the network to host a re-imagined version of the 1970s variety show “The Gong Show”. In the show, “talented” people would perform interesting abilities - all the while trying to impress the celebrity judges enough to not get “gonged” and kicked off the show.

One of the more famous bits from the show was when these two young ladies licked popsicles for almost 2 minutes….no, I’m not kidding…watch…

What on earth will they do on this new show?

In what should come as a surprise to no one, ABC has cancelled “Men in Trees”. The show has always struggled to find a place to fit in on ABC - it’s been moved around many, many times and never found a spot that stuck. They even attempted to place the show on Lifetime in March, and when that didn’t work either - it was obvious that ABC was going to drop the axe…and they did.

Viacom, MGM, and Lionsgate are teaming up for a new pay-cable channel that will compete with the big boys like HBO, Showtime, and Stars in 2009. So far, the new channel is unnamed, but we do know that it will be the only place to watching upcoming Paramount movies on pay-cable.

So when that new Star Trek film hits television, it will be on this network first, along with anything else that comes out of the Paramount stable in the near future.

In addition to being a pay-cable channel, services will also include video on demand. The channel will, of course, combine new and classic feature film output, and they are also going to produce original television series to compete with HBO and Showtime.

Interestingly, the press release mentions Robocop and The Outer Limits as two new ventures that the network will have access to. One has to wonder if either of those will end up being television shows on the network after it launches.

Some of you may recall that Britney Spears recently appeared on “How I Met Your Mother” as a semi-crazy receptionist who fell in love with Ted, and was eventually taken advantage of by Barney.

She will be making a return appearance in the near future, which isn’t terribly surprising since her first guest spot on the show garnered huge ratings.

What will her return involve? Don’t have a clue at this point, but my guess would involve some kind of retribution for Barney being…well…Barney.