"Saturday Night Live" veteran Jimmy Fallon will take Conan O'Brien's place on NBC next year when O'Brien succeeds Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show, a person familiar with the deal said on Thursday.

The two leading showbiz trade magazines, Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, both reported that a formal announcement of plans to install Fallon in O'Brien's place as host of NBC's "Late Night" show would likely come next month.

Fallon, long considered a leading contender for the 12:35 a.m. slot, will complete an NBC talent shuffle set in motion when the network announced in 2004 that Leno would retire from "Tonight" in 2009 and that O'Brien would replace him.

Fallon's publicist had no comment. Nor did NBC, the flagship broadcast company of the General Electric Co-controlled NBC Universal.

[ap]