‘Pope job’: Jimmy Fallon celebrates 10 years hosting ‘The Tonight Show’

(NBC) — It’s been 10 years since Jimmy Fallon took the reins of “The Tonight Show” and NBC will celebrate that anniversary with a two-hour special Tuesday night.

Jay Leno hosted “The Tonight Show” for more than 20 years before handing it off to Jimmy Fallon. He is now halfway there, pretty much what his comedy pal expected.

“This is a Pope job,” said Fallon. “You’re going to do this, you want this the rest of your life? You’re going to do this job. It’s up to you!”

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Fallon moved the show across the country to New York, which only raised expectations.

“I was so nervous,” said Fallon about his first episode.

A parade of stars helped calm Fallon’s nerves when they paid off fictional $100 bets he would never host “The Tonight Show.”

Even so, someone else managed to throw Fallon a curveball.

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“Everybody I knew was in the audience and I remember my dad heckling me during the monologue,” said Fallon. “I can’t believe my dad’s heckling me at my first ‘Tonight Show.’”

Since that night a decade of memories has zoomed by, but Fallon has found the best of the best to highlight in Tuesday’s 10th anniversary special a plan Fallon will carry into his second decade hosting “The Tonight Show.”

“The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon 10th Anniversary Special” airs Tuesday at 9 p.m., right after “The Voice” on NBC4.

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