Why Jimmy Fallon’s Latest Podcast Ignores the Tonight Show Controversy

It might seem weird when four of the five biggest hosts in late night all decide to ignore a hot-button topic — but that’s what happened on today’s episode of Strike Force Five, the twelve-episode podcast project starring Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers. The topic? Fallon’s own controversy, in a number of The Tonight Show employees accused him of being mean, petty, vindictive, and unprofessional. And the reason for its absence? At least in part, it’s down to timing. Fallon has had time to respond to the allegations privately, but Strike Force Five was recorded before the Rolling Stone report went public.

Strike Force Five was launched to benefit the below-the-line staff of the five late night shows, all of whom are out of work as a result of the current Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes. The unions have been on strike since the spring, when studio heads refused to budge on a number of key contractual issues, including how streaming revenues are calculated and shared.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, at least one more episode was already recorded before the news broke, so it’s likely there will be at least one more episode before the issue is addressed. By then, more than two weeks out from the initial report, the hosts may consider it easier to just ignore it entirely.

Fallon reportedly held a Zoom meeting to apologize to members of the current staff after the Rolling Stone report was released. The report interviewed 16 current and former employees of the show, who characterized the environment as toxic and said they felt bullied and belittled by Fallon and other producers. Fallon’s showrunner, Chris Miller, was on the call, which only served to emphasize the fact that in the nine years since the host took over from Jay Leno, no showrunner has lasted more than two years before leaving The Tonight Show.

It is, of course, just the latest in a long line of controversies at the storied late night show. When Leno got the job over David Letterman, there was a huge controversy, and then years later, the network forced Leno into early retirement in order to keep Conan O’Brien, to whom they had promised The Tonight Show. When O’Brien’s ratings didn’t immediately match Leno’s, they abruptly replaced O’Brien with Leno, infuriating O’Brien and his audience. In both cases, they lost long-standing relationships with talent due to mishandling of the transitions.

Fallon, a Saturday Night Live veteran, has been a consistent, inoffensive presence on the air, but is not the compelling presence that former hosts like Johnny Carson, Leno, or O’Brien were. From the moment he got the job, there has been a vocal contingent of disgruntled audience members.