Lorne Michaels says the "Tonight Show" is moving back to New York because it's the right place for its next host, Jimmy Fallon.

Michaels will produce "Tonight" when Fallon takes the show over from Jay Leno next year. The longtime force behind Manhattan-based "Saturday Night Live" says Fallon has "the energy of the city."

Fallon has been hosting NBC's "Late Night" from New York's Rockefeller Center since 2009.

Michaels said Tuesday that the show's move also is a tribute to New York itself. He says public opinion of the city has changed since Johnny Carson took the "Tonight Show" from New York to California in 1972.

Michaels made his comments during a Q&A session with comedian Martin Short at a Hollywood Radio Television & Society lunch in Beverly Hills.

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Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org and at http://twitter.com/lynnelber .