• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 30, 2025

Jimmy Fallon’s new ad-biz reality-competition show might be of keen interest to ad-industry types (or not), but can it draw the interest where it matters most -- the great general public?

I have never researched this, but it is my hunch that the ordinary person far removed from the advertising business does not exactly go around thinking about how commercials get on the TV shows they watch.

But NBC and Fallon might be banking on the success of other such business-oriented reality shows, most notably “Shark Tank” on ABC and “The Apprentice.”

Put it this way: Fallon’s show -- “On Brand with Jimmy Fallon” -- resides on the “Shark Tank” and “Apprentice” business-competition spectrum.

Indeed, at least two of the executive producers of “On Brand” have connections to “Shark Tank” and one worked on “The Apprentice.”

The latter is Brien Meagher, who was once co-executive producer of “Shark Tank.” His producing partner Rhett Bachner is also an executive producer of “On Brand.” 

In 2013, the two co-founded B17 Entertainment, producer of a score or more of reality TV shows.

But unlike “Shark Tank,” which takes pitches from ordinary folks with a wide variety of product ideas, “On Brand” is industry-specific.

The competition is between advertising creatives who work for an agency that has been created for the show -- the On Brand Agency (not a bad name for an ad agency).

It is possible that Fallon’s name was not used in the made-for-TV agency’s name because a real-life agency already has the name -- Minneapolis-based Fallon.

The “On Brand” creatives “will work with a major brand in need of a big idea for a massive, high-priority campaign,” says NBC, which is scheduling the show for Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern this fall following “The Voice.”

The brands featured on “On Brand” will be Captain Morgan, Dunkin’, KitchenAid, Marshalls, Pillsbury, Samsung, Sonic Drive-In, Southwest Airlines and Therabody.

The TV show’s collaboration with these brands is similar in nature to the approach taken on “The Apprentice,” also on NBC. 

On that show, major brands were involved in numerous weekly challenges. Google AI came up with a list of at least 21 of them. 

The creatives’ challenges on “On Brand” will range from “creating earworm jingles and unbelievable activations to producing the most quotable commercials and must-have merchandise,” NBC says. 

“They will have unprecedented access to the client’s businesses before pitching their vision to a brand representative,” the network said. 

Fallon will co-host the show with Bozoma Saint John (both pictured above). Fallon will also be a judge, while Saint John will also act as mentor to the show’s competitors.

Saint John is an experienced marketing executive whose previous positions have included CMO for Netflix and CBO at Uber.

The set-up may have been inspired by “Project Runway,” in which Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn were co-hosts and Klum was a judge and Gunn was mentor to the designer contestants.

A press release for “On Brand” does not specify this, but if the show is like past such shows, then at least one contestant will be eliminated each week.

In the finale, “one visionary will be named the best in the business,” says NBC. The winner will receive a cash prize, the network says, and “provided [with] the experience of changing the cultural landscape.” The latter “prize” is a lofty goal, indeed.

So, who are these visionaries who are coming to work for a made-for-TV ad agency? Will they be ad-industry veterans, comedians or influencers? 

Other questions include: Who, if anyone, will also act as judges on the show? Might they be celebrities such as Shaquille O’Neal, the football Manning brothers or others who also have partnerships with brands? 

And what of the “brand representatives” representing the major brands featured on the show? Who are they? 

Plus, how will this upstart On Brand Agency interact, if at all, with the real-world agencies already working with the brands?

An NBC rep told me on Friday that this information is not yet available, but will be available in the coming months in advance of the show’s premiere. The TV Blog will report all of it.

As for the question posed at the top of this blog about this show’s ability to draw the interest of the general public, Jimmy Fallon has confidence that it will.

“I love branding, I love marketing,” says Fallon in an NBC press release. “I love the world of advertising, and I think there are lot of people out there who do as well.”

“This show lets the audience and our contestants get a peek behind the curtain of how campaigns for some of the biggest brands come together and what goes into making them.”