Jay Leno’s last monologue on The Tonight Show will be May 29, 2009. His successor, Conan O’Brien, will leap into his seat when the weekend’s over, on June 1, 2009. It could be the fastest transition in late night history.

The dates were delivered to a gathering of reporters at a Television Critics Association meeting with NBC executives today.

Still way up in the air is what will become of Jay. Leno appeared at the meeting dressed incognito, similar to a recent stunt by Jimmy Kimmel, and asked pointed questions about “Jay’s” departure. The executives didn’t have a satisfactory answer.

Where Leno will go – if anywhere – is becoming one of the biggest questions in the industry. His choices seem to be anywhere from moving to ABC and taking on David Letterman and Conan O’Brien directly, moving into syndication, doing stand-up in Vegas, or retiring outright.

Which do you think he’ll do? Take this poll and let us know!

Fans of Late Night who are curious about how Jimmy Fallon will perform as its new host will get their first taste of the new talk show host online first.

In a effort to introduce Fallon to the process and give him time to hone his skills, NBC will produce a number of 10- to 15-minute webcasts, which will air about a half-year before his Late Night debut.

Series producer Lorne Michaels, also executive producer of Saturday Night Live, where Fallon once served as able and ready comedian – and where current host Conan O’Brien once worked as a writer – hopes to avoid a bit of the rankle that worried NBC executives when Conan first debuted. They nearly fired him.

And as of Monday, we know when Fallon will debut on Late Night: March or April, 2009.

Lots of great new TV this week, as everyone save Conan and Ellen are sporting new shows. Perfect for hot and humid days and nights. You know, the kind of nights that get you all giddy and fill your head with cotton, and everything turns silly? Out there nights, we used to call them in high school. So to celebrate, here are a few out there selections for you this week:

• His Comedy is Out There: One of the funniest actors around, Will Ferrell, turns up on the Late Show with David Letterman to promote his new comedy, Step Brothers. That same show sports a demonstration by Discovery Channel’s MythBusters – Adam and Jamie, for those who watch the show, show Dave promises to be interesting on Monday. If you miss Will tonight, you can catch him almost all week long, as he visits Live with Regis and Kelly and The Daily Show on Tuesday and Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday.

• Lost Out There: Controversial survivalist and documentary filmmaker/reality TV star Bear Grylls does his best to find his way off Last Call with Carson Daly Wednesday. You’ll remember Bear as the TV survivalist who got into a bit of a fix when it was discovered that some of his stranded nowhere-ness may have included hotel stay-overs.

• Orbiting Out There: Here’s a fun one! Astronaut Garrett Reisman visits The Colbert Report on Thursday. Reisman lived on the International Space Station for three months, having just returned to Earth June 14. During that time, he performed a spacewalk that lasted seven hours.

• Bow Wowout There: If you’ve haven’t seen Triumph the Insult Comic Dog perform, then you’re in for a treat – a sour and kind of unexpected treat. Imagine if Kermit the Frog became bitter and resentful. Triumph lashes out on The Tonight Show Friday.

How much you wanna bet that come mid-2009, we’ll see the first Letterman, Leno, O’Brien late night face off? I’d say the odds are even at this point.

How’s come?

Because ABC’s chief programming executive, Steve McPherson, said – all out in public and everything – that the alphabet network would welcome the late night talk show host with open arms.

McPherson said so during a grilling by erstwhile reporter Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel posed as a reporter during a press conference with TV critics and journalists earlier in the week.

The executive added that he couldn’t believe NBC would really let Leno go – at least not from the network. But if that was the case – then game on. He added that Kimmel would be involved in those negotiations.

If it comes to pass, then the 11:30 p.m. hour would see David Letterman on CBS, Leno on ABC, and Conan O’Brien, in Leno’s old chair, on NBC.

Meanwhile, Kimmel’s got his own fires to put out. Or rather, he has put those fires already.

News reports earlier in the week announced Kimmel’s split from longtime girlfriend and fellow comedian Sarah Silverman.

Maybe Kimmel just got a little too close to Ben Affleck.