Jay Leno's departure from NBC's "The Tonight Show" next year may affect ABC's "Nightline", a show which survived Ted Koppel’s departure three years ago and is now booming.

After losing a great talent such as Koppel, a move which strangled lesser shows, "Nightline" went live after years on tape, had three anchors instead of one and offered three stories every day instead of single focus and conversation that had been a Koppel trademark.

"Nightline" grew every year and even managed to beat CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" in some weeks. Even in the past strike-impacted TV season the show managed to keep its head above the water level registering only a slight decline while both Letterman and Leno saw steeper declines. The No. 2 show is breathing in Leno’s neck as it has increased its retention from the ABC stations' late local news from 39% in 2005 to 50%.

"Clearly, there was a worry that a lot of traditional 'Nightline' viewers would reject change. Viewers don't like change at all, under any circumstances. It could all have been very different. It could have gone quite badly here," said executive producer James Goldston according to Reuters.

ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson made official Wednesday his intentions of signing Jay Leno when the "Tonight Show" host finishes his contract with NBC in 2010.

When asked by ABC's current late-night TV host, Jimmy Kimmel, about the plans to bring Leno to ABC, McPherson said he will talk to Leno when he can.

“If you were even to talk to Jay Leno, wouldn't that be like contract tampering? Isn't that illegal? Can you go to jail for that?" continued Kimmel, whose show, which now airs at 12:05 a.m., might be pushed at a later hour.

However, McPherson said that he doesn’t believe NBC will end the contract with Jay Leno at “the top of his game," but of it happens he will look at it at that time and Jimmy will attend the discussions.