Is NBC robbing peter to pay paul in an effort to attract eyeballs to their new one-two combo of THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O’BRIEN and LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON? That’s the question this TV Addict is left asking after waking up for the fifth consecutive morning in a row to a deluge of “highlights” and “assets” from our friendly neighborhood publicity team at NBC (and their partners in crime, New Media Strategies). Hey, don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing that goes with my morning coffee like watching Mark Paul Gosselaar bring Zack Morris back from the dead or Norm MacDonald recount his seedy past with Andy Richter. I just can’t help but wonder… who is staying up until midnight (and yes, I realize I’m old!) when blogs like theTVaddict.com and web sites such as EW.com are delivering what you missed last night with your morning joe?

I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so, I’m so… nope, still excited. Because after far too many years of watching certain ungrateful actors who shall remain nameless (cough*cough*DB*cough) shy away from the beloved characters and shows that are responsible for transforming them from a nobody into a household name, serious kudos must be given to RAISING THE BAR SAVED BY THE BELL’s Mark Paul Gosselaar Zack Morris for his hilarious (and eerily spot-on) guest appearance on last night’s LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON. Complete with shout-outs to Stansbury (the Harvard of the west!), a cameo by the original ‘Max,’ and a timely appearance by Zack’s now-iconic cell phone (clearly, someone missed yesterday’s iPhone 3GS announcement) Gosselaar not only showed fans what a good sport he as evidence by his level of commitment to the bit, but that his high school band Zack Attack! is like, so, totally, this close to breaking out. Those Roots (Fallon’s house band) better watch their back!

Good News: Variety is reporting that NBC is this close to picking up CHUCK for a third season. Bad News: We have a feeling this report marks the first of what will be numerous articles citing ‘inside’ sources leading up to NBC’s official announcement on Monday. So CHUCK fans, brace yourself. [Source]

Good News: NUMB3RS, the surprise CBS procedural hit is celebrating 100 episodes this May. Bad News: To uncover the amount of NUMB3RS episodes this TV Addict has actually watched, subtract 100 from the number of episodes NUMB3RS is celebrating. [Source]

Good News: At a special event this week to celebrate the 100th episode of AMERICAN DAD, Seth MacFarlane revealed that plans are moving ahead for a FAMILY GUY movie, “It’s just a question of finding time.” Bad News: Just ask the creators of THE SIMPSONS how many years it took them to ‘find the time.’ [Source]

Dear Jimmy Fallon,

The honeymoon is over.

A mere two days into your LATE NIGHT adventure, your corporate overlords at NBC/Universal have already taken it upon themselves to send out a teensy little survey (via email) to select members of the viewing public asking some very in-depth questions about everything Jimmy.

And as luck would have it, your friendly neighborhood TV Addict just so happened to be among the lucky few to receive said survey.

Now don’t panic, we went easy on you. Even though we’re not gonna lie, we are kind of disappointed you (a) are not following us on twitter or (b) invited us to see the show.

Chalking up your opening night stiffness to the sheer terror you must have felt knowing that Monday’s show was the most important hour of your life, when asked to check off how we would describe you, we choose “silly,” “goofy” and “funny” rather than “nervous,” “irritating” and “a bad interviewer.” We also cut you some slack when asked to quite literally dissect your show segment-by-segment, choosing “Very Entertaining” and “Somewhat Entertaining” over the far harsher “Not At All Entertaining.”

Then we’re going to be honest, our patience began to wear thin. Because NBC/Universal really wanted us to get specific.

Would we like to see Jimmy participate in more sketches like he did on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE? Did we enjoy interactions between Jimmy and the band The Roots? Did The Roots add to our enjoyment of the show? Did we enjoy the episode? Were the comedy segment funny? Would we recommend Jimmy to a friend? And on, and on, and on…

In other words, Jimmy we hate to be the ones to tell you this. But come Monday morning, should an entire legion of NBC executives in ominous dark suits and glasses drop by your office with a massive pile of dreaded notes, act surprised.

And more importantly, don’t forget the advice of the almost always spot on Tim Goodman when he said in Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle, “When someone from NBC comes to you and asks for changes – which they will – that’s when you put up or shut up about your personal stamp, your legacy. Do your show. If you do their show, it’ll never work.”

LISTEN: In what we guarantee will be the funniest forty-seven minutes of your day, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT creator Mitchell Hurwitz and Will Arnett drop by Tim Goodman’s TV Talk Machine to talk about their new animated series SIT DOWN, SHUT UP (premiering on FOX this April), the current status of the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT movie and Will Arnett’s top-secret new series secretly being developed for Hurwitz for FOX. [Click here to listen]

PLAY: Combining two of this TV Addict’s favorite things, toucharcade.com offers up a first look at the upcoming DEXTER game for the iPhone. [Source]

LEARN: Did you know that according to just-released Live+7 DVR data, FOX’s action packed one-two combo of DOLLHOUSE and TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES increased viewers by 30% and 36% respectively? [Source]

LAUGH: And theTVaddict.com’s award for favorite one-liner from the flurry of reviews lambasting Jimmy Fallon’s shaky LATE NIGHT start last night goes to EW.com’s Ken Tucker who said,” He did an ultra-ordinary monologue — one liners about President Obama and the deficit that sounded like material Jay Leno’s writers had faxed over from L.A.” Ouch! [Source]

WATCH: Jon Stewart lambast TV news for finally discovering Twitter. Or as we put it, welcome to 2007. [Click here for video]

Good News: After months of build up, webisodes and tweets, Jimmy Fallon’s LATE NIGHT adventure begins tonight. Bad News: At this point, there is only about a 30% chance that this TV Addict will be able to stay wake until 12:35AM.

Good News: STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION alum Levar Burton had an impromptu Tweetup in Toronto this evening. Bad News: Burton neglected to give this TV Addict (and recovering Trekkie) enough time to make it downtown, clearly forgetting that transporter technology only works on TV! [Click for Pic!]

At first glance, getting drunk on a couch with two guys named Alex and Kevin may not be the most traditional avenue in which to promote the impending launch of your late night talk show.

But Jimmy Fallon isn’t exactly your traditional late night talk show host.

Especially when one takes a closer look at the path he has chosen to promote the March 2nd launch of LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON.

For those two drunks who once a week carve out an hour of their busy schedule to sit on a couch, drink beer and shoot the, well you know… just so happen to be Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose, the hosts of the insanely popular online weekly video show Diggnation.

Diggnation chronicles the most buzzed about stories on the social news web site digg.com. And more importantly, with an average audience of 200,000 tech savvy 18-34 year olds, is comprised of a demographic that network executives and media buyers only dream about.

Now, here’s where Fallon proves that he’s a heck of a lot than the actor who once thought co-starring in a movie called FEVER PITCH with Drew Barrymore was a good idea.

Remember those 200,00 fans we just mentioned? They’re not so much passive viewers, as ravenous fanboys of everything Albrecht and Rose. Be it domain names (godaddy.com), online services (netflix.com) or even tea ($100,000 worth dollars worth, according to to Adagio tea co-founder Michael Cramer) virtually everything Alex and Kevin touch, promote, or mention on the show turns to gold. And last week, on a very special episode of Diggnation, guest host Jimmy Fallon earned Alex and Kevin’s seal of approval (see flickr photos) while simultaneously garnering himself 16,000 twitter followers and a legion of new fans.

Clearly Fallon gets it.

Rather than risk the rocky start and uphill battle that Conan O’Brien faced, where legend has it everyone except the chatfest host knew he was existing on the verge of cancellation. Fallon isn’t waiting until his show’s March 2nd premiere to build an audience; Or as it’s more commonly referred to in the online world, a community.

Since early December, Fallon has been releasing daily videos on latenightwithjimmyfallon.com, answering fan questions, introducing the writers and essentially taking fans behind the scenes of the work-in-progress that will be his show. Then there’s the fact that during last week’s whirl-wind press tour, the guy took the world’s largest Consumer Electronics Show (CES) by storm, getting both jiggy and geeky with the popular electronics blog Engadget.com and appearing on G4’s ATTACK OF THE SHOW. Add all that up, and one would be hard-pressed to find fault in Fallon’s early strategy for what we’re going to dub Late Night Version 2.0.

Now all that’s left is for Fallon to be, well, funny.

Stay tuned…