Rolling Stone contacted more than 50 Tonight Show employees, past and present, during the reporting for this story. After reaching out to representatives for Fallon and NBC, Rolling Stone reached out to an additional 30 current and former staffers. 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. Nor would any of the program’s nine showrunners since 2014 comment about the program’s namesake on the record – they wouldn’t even give statements of support, as is common in the entertainment industry.
Holy shit. When they contact 89 of your employees and no one will say a single positive thing about working with you.
I’ve worked in environments like this before. The reality is most (not all) very rich people I’ve worked with are terrible people within their own fiefdoms. Many are emotionally abusive to people who report to them; some are also narcissists and sociopaths.
I didn’t last long in those cases unless the money was very good, and even then sacrificing your mental health and personal life is probably not worth it. People work in places like this for a year or two for the perceived prestige or to satisfy their childhood dream, then burn out and go somewhere more sane.
Unfortunately, there’s a never ending supply of warm bodies for roles like that. Many industries are built on that assumption: film and television, media, fashion, game development, etc.
After requesting a formal meeting with HR over email, they say Granet-Bederman put them on a performance-improvement plan — a step before disciplinary action, including termination. They say they were surprised to learn Granet-Bederman wasn’t happy with their performance up until that point. The employee says they heard from HR afterward, and then in a subsequent meeting with HR reps for NBC, they shared their issues and concerns, including that they were experiencing suicidal ideation. They say they later saw an email exchange between HR and Granet-Bederman, which was reviewed by Rolling Stone, in which the HR rep denigrated the employee to Granet-Bederman.
NEVER TRUST HR
1000%. HR is not there for you. HR is there to protect the company from you.
This show is too boring to deserve this much drama behind the scenes.
It is probably because of the quantity of content you need in a day. You need at least 22 minutes of stand-up or sketch along with talking points or skits with celebrities. That is a lot of work, even if it fit something generally bland and forgettable.
It also probably doesn’t help that Fallon came from SNL, which famously has a bad work culture.
This is an exceptional point.
The Larry Sanders show is an excellent look into how crazy the late night business is.
no one finds Jimmy Fallon more funny than Jimmy Fallon
He cracks himself up!
Just one knee-slapper after another. And another. And another…
It’s a late-night knee-slapper cavalcade!
He finds himself to be… the funniest guy on Earth!
Boy oh boy oh boy.But you know what I see? I see the fake-smiley face of the 1%.
The title is wrong. Chaos and crying in rooms sure, but there is no comedy at the Jimmy Fallon show.
This wouldn’t have been an issue if NBC stuck with Conan
All of this to make such an inconsequential and uninteresting tv program.
I guess I’ll continue my flawless streak of not watching his shows then.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The host, known for his warm and congenial presence onscreen, was acting especially dismissive and irritable during production meetings, a former longtime employee tells Rolling Stone.
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 — who seemingly don’t know how to say no to Jimmy.
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.
While Fallon publicly addressed the video, employees say there was an internal uproar because staff members weren’t happy the talk-show host didn’t directly acknowledge the incident with them.
In 2021,The Tonight Show, which is produced by Universal Television, Broadway Video, and Fallon’s production company Electric Hot Dog, was renewed by NBC until 2026.
They also say they want Fallon and NBC, who are well aware of The Tonight Show’s past issues, to be held accountable and take employees’ concerns seriously to change the environment for the better.
The original article contains 3,713 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 95%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Just checking, how many people here actually watches late night TV shows? Or do people watch them the next day on YouTube?
I watch highlights on YouTube when uploaded. But I stopped watching late night shows a long time ago… ever since Conan left NY. Although that coincides with me finding work and never having the time to watch live (which is around 1pm here). Then streaming became a thing shortly after that and we had to cut cord.
Do you think there is any value in watching these shows live then?
There was a maybe two-year stretch after the lockdowns where I watched Colbert and Oliver pretty regularly (the next day or sometime that week), and occasionally the Seth Meyers news recap.
Back in the day I used to watch Conan occasionally when he was on NBC. I watched The Daily Show religiously until Jon Stewart left.
These days? I don’t watch any of them. If I were going to start up again it would be Oliver, though; at least that’s informative.
Based on the first paragraphs it looks like his past drug habit has caught up to him.
Is this the new Chevy Chase?
Unfunny hack with overinflated ego. Yep, checks out.
Chase was at least very funny for quite a while, something Fallon cannot say.
I don’t know Jimmy Fallon, but back when I had the ability to watch his show I did occasionally. It was light and easy to fall asleep to, but interesting enough to entertain if I had trouble doing so. I think all the late night shows to some degree understand this is their audience, and Fallon’s was especially good at keeping it inoffensive.
If I were watching it midday or in the evening, I’m sure I’d find it less valuable but as a late-night show, it foots the bill well. I don’t know the truth of this matter, but I hate it for him if he’s struggling personally and adversely affecting those who work for him.
Wasn’t Jimmy’s wallot suspect in some crypto bullshit during the collapse of the techbros sanctuary?
