Rumor: Late night’s special guest is a comedy icon

We have an update on who booked six late night television shows in one night.

A late night mystery continues to develop. Six shows have a “special guest” scheduled for Thursday Aug. 8. The latest news suggests that it is a familiar face and a fan favorite, too.

It’s not often that seemingly every late night show collaborates on something outside of say, a charity event. But that is the case for Thursday night after seeing the weekly guest schedule. To recap, here are the shows planning a “special” or “mystery” guest on Thursday night:

• The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
• Late Night with Seth Meyers
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
• The Late Late Show with James Corden
• Jimmy Kimmel Live!
• Conan

Initially, reports suggested that a “major female singer” had booked the shows to promote her return to the spotlight. Following a few leads online, Last Night On suggested Rihanna was behind the take over to promote her next album. But a new report debunks that theory for something much more aligned with late night television.

According to a source for W magazine, Will Ferrell is behind it all. The actor will use the six late night shows to broadcast a pre-recorded bit to promote season two of “The Ron Burgundy Podcast.”

This makes much more sense than Rihanna. Yes, the singer certainly has the star-power to take over an entire late night show. But it doesn’t quite fit for her to need six shows to promote an album. She has the fan base to release an album overnight unannounced and still have it sell like crazy.

Ferrell’s podcast as Anchorman character Ron Burgundy is advertising the launch of season two on…you guessed it: Aug. 8. Ferrell has a strong relationship with Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and Conan O’Brien to use a special segment of their shows. It likely wasn’t difficult to then get Stephen Colbert, James Corden, and Jimmy Kimmel on board.

Given that Ron Burgundy is a news man after all, don’t be surprised if the shows use a “breaking news” type interruption to segue into the pre-recorded bit from Ferrell. It may have been filmed in such a way for each host to provide his own unique introduction but at the end of the day, Ferrell is the star and the hosts are likely to stay out of his way on this one.

Late night fans are probably happier to hear that it is Ron Burgundy taking things over rather than Rihanna. With all due respect to Rihanna, these are comedy shows and should showcase the best comedy has to offer first and foremost. Will Ferrell has long been the top guest in late night and he can prove that by taking over six shows in one night.