Written by new-contact on Mar 25, 2013. Posted in Incentive News

New York may target flagship Tonight Show with TV location filming incentive

New York may be targeting NBC’s flagship Tonight Show with a new filming incentive designed to attract established TV programmes to the Empire State. The Tonight Show has been based in Los Angeles since the early 1970s but a major reformat could mean the show switches to New York.

Within the next few days New York is likely to offer filming tax credit support to TV shows that have filmed at least five seasons elsewhere in the US, carry a specific annual production budget and have studio audiences of at least 200.

“[The incentive is] not specifically for The Tonight Show, but it’s made to lure shows from other states,” an aide of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told the New York Post: “The way the law’s currently written, you get a [tax] break if you start a show here, not if you move.”

Comedian Jimmy Fallon – already host of New York chat show Late Night – is widely expected to take over from Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show, possibly in 2014. That would make a switch to a New York filming location practical, as well as cost-effective.