Tuesday, February 25, 2014

And now, here's Jimmy!

"The Tonight Show" made its return to New York City with a splashy opening sequence showcasing Grand Central Terminal, the Chrysler Building, Lincoln Center and Jimmy Fallon's glamorous new studio at Rockefeller Center — a fitting tribute to the place that helped foot the bill.
An unconventional 30 percent tax credit aimed at luring "Tonight" away from California after four decades is reportedly saving NBC more than $20 million a year.
The network said that while the show relocated to New York for creative reasons the move wouldn't have been possible without the tax credit.
Don't expect any help if you're a struggling nobody;
The tax incentives were inserted into the state budget by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration in early 2013 as NBC was debating dropping the show's then-host, Jay Leno, for Fallon and potentially leaving Los Angeles to return to New York, where the show started in 1954.
The language of the 30 percent annual tax credit was remarkably specific: It would only benefit a show that had filmed at least five years in another state before moving to New York (check), spends at least $30 million in production costs (check) and films in front of a studio audience of at least 200 people (check). In other words: "The Tonight Show."
Cuomo's team has downplayed the idea that the credit was specifically for "Tonight," though Kenneth Adams, commissioner of the New York State Department of Economic Development, said this week that changed were made to "attract these long-running, high-budget productions to New York State."

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