The network has named Fallon the successor to Conan O'Brien, who next year moves west to take over from Jay Leno at the "Tonight" show.
Giving Fallon a shot completes a plan that's been talked about since 2003, when a network executive first broached the idea of doing a talk show with the former "Saturday Night Live" star.
Fallon jokes he's been doing a monologue in his living room the last three years.
Fallon is expected to move into the Rockefeller Center studio in New York where O'Brien now works next year, once it's refurbished following O'Brien's departure.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)