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The Shark Deck. Oh, I got quite the one for you today. I almost did a bonus episode on Friday about this one. From Rolling Stone, the headline Hi, Oh by the way, Hi, I’m tryn to mack with your Daily Comedy News from Rolling Stone. The headline Chaos, comedy and crying Rooms.
Inside Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show. Sixteen current and former staffers say Jimmy Fallon’s a ratic behavior spoiled their dream of working on the Tonight Show. Oh My, Rolling Stone rights who was a particularly tense day on the set of The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. The host, known for his warm and congenial presence on screen, was acting especially dismissive and irritable during production meetings that according to a former longtime employee who told that to Rolling Stone. As the story goes, Jimmy then stumbled through rehearsal in front of a studio audience.
Employees who spoke to Rolling Stone about their experiences on the Tonight Show say it’s common knowledge behind the scenes that there were good Jimmy days and bad Jimmy days, and that was a bad day. They say Fallon seemed to be confused during rehearsal that day in twenty seventeen, when he crossed out jokes on the piece of paper he was holding, rifted will the audience for the bit, and then look back down at the same sheet of paper. The employee says he couldn’t remember what he had just crossed out himself. I was like, Oh my god, he seems drunk. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.
This could be awful. This could be another show right here. According to two current and fourteen former employees rights Rolling Stone, the Tonight Show has been a toxic workplace for years. They say the ugly environment behind the scenes starts at the top with Fallon’s erratic behavior and has trickled down to its ever changing leadership teams nine showrunners in the past nine years. Staffords say it was commonplace to hear people joking about wanting to kill themselves, and they would refer to guest dressing rooms as crying rooms because that’s where they would go to let out their emotions when they were upset with their alleged mistreatment.
One former employee tells Rolling Stone, it’s a bummer because it was my dream job. Writing for Late Night is a lot of people’s dream jobs, and they’re coming into this and it becomes a nightmare very quickly. It’s sad that it’s like that, especially knowing that it doesn’t have to be that way. Rolling Stone contacted more than fifty Tonight’s Show employees, passed and present. While many of them praised Fallon’s immense talent and comedic gifts, not a single one agreed to speak on the record or had positive things to say about working on The Tonight Show.
Wow. Nor would any of the program’s nine show runners since twenty fourteen comment about the program’s namesake on the record. They wouldn’t even give statements of support, as is common in the entertainment industry. Wow Wow Wow. All right, let me take a time out from the article.
I have met Jimmy Fallon. I want to say twice. It might be three times, and it might be one time. I definitely was with him when he was on Jim Brewer’s Show, and that was a decade ago. I want to say it was twice.
The Jimmy Fallon I met was the Jimmy Fallon public persona, the nice, easy going guy. So I don’t know about any of these other things. I have never run into that part of Jimmy Fallon. After Rolling Stone published their report, Fallon apologized to staffers and an all hands zoom call, saying it’s embarrassing and I feel so bad. Dis According to two people who are on the call, Jimmy said sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends.
I feel so bad. I can’t even tell you. This next thing is interesting and a statement. A spokesperson for NBC defended the program, but notably did not mention Fellon himself. The statement, We’re incredibly proud of the Tonight Show and providing a respectful working environment is a top priority.
As in any workplace, We’ve had employees raise issues, those who have been investigated, and action has been taken where appropriate. As is always the case, we encourage employees who feel they’ve experienced or observed behavior inconsistent with our policies to report their concerns so that we may address them accordingly. Huh. All right. In the second half of the podcast, I’m going to share with you my conspiracy theory because I like conspiracy theories.
But let me stay with this Rolling Stone article. They talk about when Jimmy left the Late Night Show the twelve thirty show and then went to the tonight show and said behind the scenes, there was a surprising, dramatic and ugly shift in the working environment, according to three employees who original worked on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. These employees say they felt a change because Michael Shoemaker, who was at the helm of Late Night, didn’t move over to the tonight show and stuck around to produce Late Night with Seth Myers. A former employee, He says, the producers felt this pressure and that translated down to all their employees. People that worked under them felt this pressure that if you made one mistake, you were gone and’d be easily replaced.
You have all these NBC pages in the building who are ready willing and able to take your job. Another former employee, he said, nobody told Jimmy no. Everybody walked on eggshells, especially showrunners. You never knew which Jimmy we were going to get and when he was going to throw a hissy fit. Look how many showrunners once so quickly We know they didn’t last long.
Another former employee Mentally, I was at the lowest place of my life. I didn’t want to live anymore. I thought about taking my own life all the time. I knew deep down i’d never actually do it, but in my head, I’m like, why do I think about this all the time? One employee says they lost nearly twenty pounds.
I know other people who were in my department who were also unhappy with mistreatment, but it was never a thing where any of us were empowered enough to say anything. It just always felt like you should be grateful that you have a job, and you should be grateful that you have this position at this show, at this network. Everybody wants to be in the spot you’ve worked hard to get here. Shouldn’t be a thing where you’re being ungrateful, Rolling Stone Rights. According to most employees who spoke to Rolling Stone, it’s common knowledge behind the scenes that Fallon’s temperament, mooton treatment of staffers is erratic.
Wow, I had never heard that. A friend of mine told me the other day he had heard. I’ll call it the friend who said, let me find it. That friend said, on the other hand, there’s always been talks about drunk Jimmy. I had never personally heard that, but apparently people in this article have.
Rolling Stone wrote over the years there’ve been rumors and gossip items about Fallon’s relationship with alcohol. In twenty sixteen, The New York Post around a story alleging that NBC executives were concerned about Fallon’s drinking. Falon denied this in a New York Times profile published in twenty seventeen, saying I could never do a day to day job if I shrinking every night. That’s just kicking you when you’re down. But two employees say they saw Falon seemingly inebriated at work in twenty seventeen.
Another two employees say, on separate occasions in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty, they thought they smelled alcohol on Falan’s breath when they entered an elevator with him during the workday. When former employee said, it was like, if Jimmy’s in a bad mood, everybody’s day is aft. People wouldn’t joke around on the office, and they wouldn’t stand around and talk to each other. It was very much like, focus on whatever it days you have to do because Jimmy’s in a bad mood, and if he sees that, he might fly off. A commonly used phrase around the office, we’re up against it.
When former staffer says, when something was wrong, we all knew how to behave afterward, which was just sort of avoid eye contact and don’t make another mistake. It happened over the smallest thing, would have to shut the whole thing down. The sketch isn’t happening. When things like that would happen, you just beat yourself up. A former employee says sometimes would get nice Jimmy, but that was sometimes not a lot.
It was just really, really sad to me that this talented man created such a horrible environment for the people there. To employees remember witnessing Falon scolding the que Card guy in the middle of a taping with Jerry Seinfeld. They say it was an uncomfortable moment. Seinfeld told Falon to apologize to the que Card production member, which then he allegedly did. A former employee said it was very awkward, and Jerry was like, you should apologize to him, almost trying to make it a joke.
Was one of the strangest moments ever, and so many people were there, so it’s kind of hard to forget. I’ll talk about Jerry’s reaction to all this in a minute. Some spin control went out, including the NBC statement I read earlier.
Also a current employee the show spoke with people and described Jimmy Fallon…
He makes a point of commitding you when you do a great job and when he’s happy. Any feedback I’ve always received, it’s like, hey, we don’t need to do that again. It’s been very constructive and helpful for me and continuing to put together show he’s happy with. I’ve never been belittled, yelled at, nothing like that. It’s all exactly how a boss should give feedback to an employee.
Jerry Seinfeld spoke to people about the moment and said, I remember this moment quite well. I teach Jimmy about a flub and we all had a fun laugh about how rarely Jimmy’s thrown off. It was not uncomfortable at all. Jimmy and I still occasionally recall it and laugh. Idiotic twisting of events.
All right, let’s take the break here, and then I’ll tell you about my conspiracy theory. Let’s start with the New York Times from twenty seventeen, who wrote Jimmy Fallon was on top of the world. Then came Trump. Once the undisputed juggernaut of the late night category, mister Fallon’s Tonight Show, a celebrity friendly cavalcade of games and gags, has seen its ratings decline in recent months.
Meanwhile, his politically pointed competitor, Stephen Colbert has closed wha…
So I was curious about the late night ratings. I found an article here just picking a random week week of January sixteen, twenty twenty three, from the Futon critic, Jimmy Kimmel Live ranked as the number one late night talk show among adults eighteen to forty nine, beating This Night Show with Jimmy Fallon by twenty one percent and Colbert by twenty seven percent. Kimmel three hundred and seven thousand viewers, Fallon two fifty three, Colbert two forty one. A Google search suggests Jimmy Fallen makes sixteen million dollars hosting the Tonight Show. A different Google search shows Seth Meyers makes five million dollars hosting late night.
He was my conspiracy theory and this is just me in the basement daydreaming. You know how I pointed out last year that it was weird that the Daily Show didn’t name a replacement host and they were doing the guest host thing, and then I finally figured out, oh, there’s a writer strike coming. So if they had announced the Daily Show with super new host, that that host would have gotten about two three months and then disappeared and they would have had to relaunch it. So it made sense in retrospect to do the guest host.
And now right now they’re not paying anybody to host the Daily Show because t…
Now, let’s look at it Tonight’s show next year, there is a presidential election. That’s not Jimmy’s stronghouse. That’s Colbert’s wheelhouse, and Kimmel’s good at it. So were we looking at the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon finishing third in twenty twenty four? And if so, why are we paying him sixteen million dollars?
Meanwhile, CBS, when James Gordon stepped down from the Late Light Show, they decided they’re not going to do a twelve thirty show anymore. Maybe NBC’s looking at that and going, Huh, why are we doing a twelve thirty show here in the twenty twenties. Maybe that doesn’t make sense. So what if this is some sort of way to exit Jimmy Fouln from the Tonight Show when the Tonight Show’s not even on save that salary, and then when you come back, you come back to an all new Tonight Show with Seth Myers. Seth currently making five, which is less than Jimmy sixteen.
Pick a number between five and sixteen. Seth would be happy. Seth would host the Tonight Show. Everybody wants to host the Tonight Show, right, and Jimmy’s gone, and Set’s probably better at the political stuff. Pretty wacky conspiracy theory there, Johnny Mack, Yes, I agree, all right, what about Lauren Michaels.
He’d be pretty upset if you got rid of Jimmy found, wouldn’t he? Yes, But Lauren wants to stick around to do the fiftieth anniversary of Saturday Night Live. Lauren is going to take that victory lap. So no matter how mad Lauren gets, he’s not going to storm out of NBC in year forty nine of SNL, and it’s going to be a shortened to year of SNL. Lauren’s gonna want the victory lap.
So Lauren’s going to stick around. So even if you push out his buddy Jimmy Fallon, I think he’ll find way to get over it. So why did this article suddenly come out? Were people just bored? Does this have something to do with the writer strike?
Or am I in the something with this conspiracy theory? Again, I’m just daydreaming. Probably everything I said is absolutely wrong. You let me know what you think in the Facebook comments Daily Company News podcast group, And that’s your company news for today. Follow the show for free on Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your shows.
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