Jimmy Fallon Called Out By His Own Staff After Saying He Supports Writers Strike!

M.B.

If you think Jimmy Fallon looks fake af on The Tonight Show, you should listen to his staff… who are basically confirming it.

The SNL vet showed up to the illustrious Met Gala on Monday night, where some red carpet reporters actually asked some serious questions — in his case about the writers strike!

For those who don’t know, the WGA made some pretty reasonable demands of the Hollywood studios that employ their writers — mostly just about keeping up with changing technology — and got a pretty hard pass. Essentially, writers want to be paid the same for TV shows and movies that go straight to streaming — after all, it’s the same amount of work on their end. But the studios have found ways to get around the old rules, which didn’t take into account the type of streaming services that exist now. Writers also want guarantees studios won’t start trying to replace them with AI programs the second they think they can get away with it. Seems like an easy enough call, right? The writers were basically told to go eff themselves, so they went on strike at midnight on Monday night.

Related: Did Jimmy Help SNL Castmate Horatio Sanz Groom A 15-Year-Old Fan?!

That was about the time Fallon was partying the night away after the Met. But during the fashion event, he was actually asked about it. And he responded with full-throated support, saying:

“I wouldn’t have a show if it wasn’t for my writers, I support them all the way.”

He was asked if a strike would mean the show would “go dark.” With currently airing shows like Ted Lasso and Yellowjackets, episodes are written and filmed months beforehand, so it’ll take some time before you see the results of the strike. If it’s short enough, maybe not at all! But for late night shows, they’re written and performed every single day! They’re sort of the canary in the coal mine, the first to be affected by a strike. Fallon had to think about it but eventually answered:

“If there’s a strike… uh, yeah, I think we will. I think we’ll go dark. Whatever I can do to support the guild.”

As it turns out, the show was pulled from the air — as were Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The Daily Show, which all went dark as well.

Here Fallon is saying basically the same to another reporter who asked — he needs his writers:

But does he really support his staff? One Tonight Show staffer, senior photo research coordinator Sarah Kobos, called BS! She tweeted on Tuesday:

“He wasn’t even at the meeting this morning to tell us we won’t get paid after this week.”

He didn’t even show up to give them the bad news personally? Ick! Tagging the multimillionaire host directly, she added:

“@jimmyfallon please support your staff. Had fun bowling with ya last week, but a fun party won’t pay my rent.”

Sarah went on to explain to readers that she wasn’t a writer — but was affected nonetheless as the show would not go on:

“NBC decided to stop paying us after this week and end our health insurance after this month if the strike is ongoing. They won’t even tell us if we will technically be furloughed. Just active employees who aren’t paid.”

Just terrible. But what could Jimmy Fallon himself do? Well…

He could follow the lead of Conan O’Brien, who was still hosting Late Night for NBC back in 2007 during the last Writers Strike. He hadn’t even gotten the Tonight Show gig yet, much less the lucrative TBS job. But you know what Conan did? He paid the salaries of his entire staff out of his own pocket during the strike! That was about 75 people!

He also kept the show going, just with no writers. Basically he messed around onstage, being his hilarious self — all the while highlighting how much late night shows NEED writers, and how much everything would be chaos without them! It was pretty awesome.

Surprise!

Well, it looks like Fallon — and NBC — were listening. Because even while this story was being written Wednesday morning, Deadline was told the network changed their minds and would be paying the staffs of Fallon and Seth Meyers‘ shows for an extra week and keeping their health insurance active through September. In addition, Jimmy and Seth will reportedly pay their staff an additional week after that out of their own pockets! They really are following in Conan’s example! Fantastic!

It’s unclear what will happen if the strike lasts more than a couple weeks, but at least for the time being no one is getting left high and dry.

Inneresting that Jimmy’s staff was so quick to call him out specifically though, right? Almost like they never expected him to help without being shamed into it… Sarah specifically mentioned she was told Seth Meyers had already spoken to his staff to tell them he would take care of them. Huh.

Do YOU think it took calling out to get Fallon to help? Was this staffer getting angry over nothing? Or does she know her boss — and is this an Ellen Degeneres/James Corden situation just waiting to happen?? Let us know your thoughts on Fallon, the strike, and everything else in the comments (below)!

[Image via The Tonight Show/Late Night/Conan/YouTube.]

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