Jimmy Fallon says he’s sorry, feels bad for allegedly fostering a toxic workplace
The Tonight Show host told staffers over Zoom: “Sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends”
Aux News Jimmy Fallon
It’s been a big day for Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. After a decade of reportedly running late-night’s most coveted chair like a tyrant, Fallon told staffers on a Zoom call that he’s sorry and “feels bad.” The low, low, low bar of apologizing to a small number of staffers was the least he could do after more than two current and 14 former members of the Tonight Show family told Rolling Stone that the long-running talk show was a toxic workplace. In the parlance of his unhappy crew, Fallon is “up against it” after the allegations of fostering an unhealthy and hostile work environment came to light this morning.
“It’s embarrassing, and I feel so bad. Sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends. I feel so bad I can’t even tell you.” Fallon told the Tonight Show staff over Zoom [per Variety]. “I want this show to be fun, it should be inclusive for everybody, it should be funny, it should be the best show, the best people.”
Fallon also addressed the constant churn of Tonight Show showrunners, many of whom Rolling Stone reported were allegedly abusive, vindictive, and unable to rein Fallon in. Nevertheless, Fallon referred to current showrunner Chris Miller as “a great leader,” one he expects to be around for some time. Rolling Stone says the publication contacted more than 80 current and former employees of Fallon, and none agreed to go on the record about their experiences or had positive words for Fallon. However, one in the apology meeting said Fallon’s response “felt earnest.”
The exposé accuses Fallon of acting erratic and abusive at work. The burn was felt mainly by employees, who claimed to have mental health crises from working under Fallon. “Mentally, I was in the lowest place of my life. I didn’t want to live anymore. I thought about taking my own life all the time,” one ex-employee says. “I knew deep down I would never actually do it, but in my head, I’m like, ‘Why do I think about this all the time?’”
Per Rolling Stone, Miller emailed employees after the exposé was published. He wrote:
While I know the reporter reached out to many of you before the piece ran, I don’t believe what’s written is reflective of the overall culture of our extraordinary team that I’m so lucky and proud to work with every day. The place described in the article is not the place I know. Still, it’s disappointing to see something published that does not capture the positive and inclusive environment I believe we have created together.
151 Comments
Sucks if the accusations are true, but I think for years a lot of people have hated him for what I think are some pretty undeserved reasons, like they think he’s not funny or too needy or his petting Trump’s hair somehow helped Trump win the election.
Those are all legitimate reasons to hate Jimmy Fallon.
Do you frequently hate people because you think they’re not funny?
Is it “think” or “know”? No one is jumping up to defend Carlos Mencia now.
There’s no way to “know” if someone’s funny or not, humor being subjective and all.
I don’t know… if they can’t perform and get an average citizen of the country they target to find them funny at least 50% of the time, I would say that would count as “not funny”. Look at Dennis Miller, his comedic abilities died in 9/11 and Robin Williams has had better jokes than him since 2014.
Funny you should suggest popularity as a measure of quality since Fallon has more YouTube subscribers than Colbert and Kimmel combined.
But subscribers on social media don’t equal the current status, aside from being able to outright buy them cheaply, people can follow when the person is acceptable but don’t always unfollow when they fall from grace. Danny Masterson, for example, has 1.2 million followers on twitter, does that mean they are all rape apologists?
I wasn’t suggesting all his YouTube subscribers are fine with whatever bad behavior he may be guilty of(and since those accusations surfaced literally today I think it’s just a bit too soon to gauge that impact), but that his number of subscribers suggests a lot of people really do like his show.
But the argument I made before, if someone follows a person in the past they rarely will unfollow when they fall off the radar or even become unfavorable. If you have social media accounts, how regularly do you “prune”? Many do not.
He has 31 million subscribers now and Googling reveals he hit 20 million in February 2019, so he’s added 11 million in the last 4.5 years. By contrast, Colbert has just 9 million now.
Anthony Jeselnik has a line (paraphrased) that the biggest tragedy of 9/11 was Dennis Miller’s comedy career.
One of the few good things Rogan did was expose that hack
It’s hard not to if it’s their job to BE funny.
I think it’s pretty easy to ignore entertainers you don’t like.
I’d like to, unfortunately he’s been in charge of an important entertainment showcase for a decade now.
I don’t think The Tonight Show is quite as important as it used to be.
Cool, why not fuck off?
Most people do not have the job of being funny. “Hate” is a strong word. But I frequently dislike people who do a bad job.
Only if they make $16 million a year by supposedly being funny.
When they’re being paid millions of dollars to be funny and can’t manage at all, I think there’s some justification for disliking a person. It’s a giant reminder of the same kind of guy who keeps getting promoted despite having no qualifications or discernible ability.
Seems to me he kept getting promoted because a lot of people liked him on SNL and Late Night(not so much his in-between movie career, which fizzled out accordingly), and I keep bringing up YouTube subscribers to show how many people like to watch him now, so he seems perfectly qualified for the job to me. Comedic ability is subjective; no comedian appeals to everyone.
You asked why people hate him. The people that don’t find him funny hate him for the reasons I explained. I honestly don’t care one way or the other about Jimmy Fallon. I haven’t watched the Tonight Show since Jay Leno was still the host (the first time). I was just trying to answer the question.
Trump was on his show after the Access Hollywood tape, after mocking the disabled reporter, after assault allegations, after comments on immigrants, etc etc. Fallon never should have had him on the show, and if he was forced to he didn’t have to be so friendly and playful. Trump won by such tiny margins, it’s not outrageous to think his validation by Fallon may have made a difference.
The tape was actually released after Trump was on his show. Also, Trump won by thousands of voters even in the closest states, and it would’ve taken several states to sway the election. What makes you think Fallon had that much impact? What do you think would’ve happened if he’d scolded Trump instead?
I’m not going to claim Fallon helped Trump win any number of votes (especially as he actually lost the popular ballot by about 3 million but won the presidency because of America’s byzantine political system), but he definitely didn’t need to invite someone who was already known for spreading hateful views onto his show and play with his hair like he was some local scamp.
His appearance was also during the primaries, correct? At that point the whole thing still looked like a vanity campaign designed to further build his brand. In the end even he seemed surprised that he won.
Since I just googled it for another comment, it was September 15th 2016 apparently. So no not during the primaries.
I agree with you and absolutely detest this line of reasoning. No one is responsible for getting Trump elected but the people who voted for him. If Jimmy fucking Fallon ruffling that asshole’s weird hair was enough to sway the election then we clearly don’t deserve the right to vote and the very idea of democracy is called into question. People need to be treated as self willed individuals capable of making their own decisions and bearing the consequences or stupid sheep in need of a leader to direct them. One or the other, not whichever is on your side or is most convenient for the situation
I don’t think anyone was swayed one way or the other by Trump being on Fallon’s show, but it was absolutely atrocious optics to invite him on in the first place. Same thing goes for SNL. I know it in all likelihood wasn’t Fallon’s doing that he was booked, but him being on that show did a lot to help normalize Trump and his proto-Fascist ideology.
I agree with you and absolutely detest this line of reasoning. No one is responsible for getting Trump elected but the people who voted for him.I would add the people who “just couldn’t” vote for Clinton. At least the ones in swing states.
I think the media giving him infinite free airtime was the issue, even if Jimmy added to it it’s not like he was covering every single speech he ever did.
You’re underestimating just how fucking stoopid the average woketard is
Dump didn’t even win the popular vote, it’s only the slave owner legacy of the electoral college that let him become Prez.
“he didn’t have to be so friendly and playful” goes entirely against the entire Fallon brand, though. People go on his show to be glad-handled.
Yup, Democrats are dumbfucks and if someone rubs a Republicans hair they’ll vote for him!
he’s not gonna fuck you, dude
How about Stop laughing during every skit you were ever in on saturday night live. I guess he continues to do that on his own show but who cares now, I don’t know if I hate him but I know he ain’t funny. I’m not sure why you feel the need to reply to every single person in this thread. Are you jimmy fallon mister iron body dino?
First they came for the mediocre comedians, but I said nothing, for I was too busy trying to think up jokes to write in A.V. Club comments.
Lorne Michaels has done so much good for comedy, but shoving Jimmy Fallon down our collective throats was a collosal misstep.
Where do you think Michaels really started to falter? I’d say firing Sandler, Farley and Norm Macdonald was where he really began his downward spiral. After that he still brought in some good people, but they seemed to succeed in spite of him. He championed Conan O’Brien as the host of Late Nite, and then though Fallon was a good replacement? It doesn’t make sense.
Hey dirtside! I gotta joke for ya; Fallon’s Foul!
Fallon?More like Failin’!
RockHard only comes on woketards!
Anytime a “sorry” is immediately followed by “if” it’s no longer an apology. I’m sure he’s embarrassed, but it doesn’t sound like an acknowledgement or understanding of the problem, acceptance of responsibility, or a pledge to improve the situation.
He also seems to spend more time on how this affected him than, you know, the people he was actually toxic to.
Actual image of Jimmy Fallon “apologising”:
And the “I’m sorry if” isn’t even about the complaints that people raised in the article. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed your family and friends?” Huh? How about: I’m sorry I made you, the people who work for me, feel unimportant or belittled. I’m sorry I made this workplace a stressful place to be. I’m sorry that I haven’t been the kind of leader the show needs, and you all suffered as a result. Instead, he came with that weak shit. The only person that Fallon continually embarrasses is himself.
How about “I’m sorry I’m not Conan. He rules while I drool.”
Also an acceptable apology.
Also embarrassed yourself, you elf fink.Edit: Fallon, to clarify.
Rolling Stone says the publication contacted more than 80 current and former employees of Fallon, and none agreed to go on the record about their experiences or had positive words for Fallon.I know the “tHeY’Re jUSt aLleGAtIoNS” crowd will insist this doesn’t mean anything, but damn, if I was Fallon, I’d be hurt Rolling Stone talked to eighty people and not one of them had “positive words.”
Same outlet that ran the UVA story. 80 people and no names.
You’d hope they’d learn from that. Not that I don’t believe at least some of the allegations here, and no system like RS’s investigative journalism will be 100%, but that seriously sucked and made me rethink just taking them at their word.
80 anonymous people is where it loses me. That speaks to me more of “Hey, want to talk shit about Fallon? You won’t have to use your name” rather than “We can see you’re scared. We’d rather use your name, but we’ll protect you for the sake of this story.”
The details of that story were so absurd, many defying all common sense, that it’s hard to believe any publication would run it. The author just so clearly wanted it to all be true.
The UVA story had a lot of foundational flaws that are not present here. It depended on a single alleged victim’s claims about events and either (a) could not be verified, because they supposedly happened in private; or (b) could have been checked, but weren’t. Anytime you’re using anonymous sources, there’s a risk. But when you have 80 people telling similar stories about a workplace environment, that risk becomes far lower, and probably significantly outweighed by the news value.
Case in point.
UVA?
Ran a story about a rape at University of Virginia (UVA is the nickname)
The reporter, who thankfully has dropped off the face of the Earth, got taken in by some woman who made it up and then she went on every outlet that would have her and said, essentially, that UVA should be burned to the ground and a Chuck-E-Cheese be put in its place and the administrators should be deported.
One dean in particular may actually own the Stone in Rolling Stone now.
That stuck out to me as a really telling detail, too. Like, damn. Dozens of people had the chance to defend you or at least say something mildly neutral, and they were all like, “Nah, I’ll pass.” Ouch.
Right. I think most of us have had coworkers or bosses with whom we’ve had negative interactions, but still like or respect. People can have character flaws, even significant character flaws, while also being good people to work with.It sounds like that is not the experience with Fallon.
You’d think there’d be at least a couple of sycophants. The fact that there aren’t suggests that being on the Fallon Train doesn’t seem like a smart longtime strategy.
Leno did two decades.
Who’s really that loyal to Jimmy Fallon though? He just doesn’t seem to have the appeal that even Leno could drum up
I would have guessed that there was a decent likelihood of finding someone on his staff who is loyal enough to Fallon to say something positive. It’s not like I know the man well enough to say he’s unlovable IRL.
Yeah. Fallon’s apology is good here, good enough to give you some optimism that maybe things will change. But it’s pretty devastating that no one interviewed would say positive things about Fallon. That doesn’t suggest a boss who is generally a good person, but has some character flaws. It suggests a boss who is a jerk, through and through.
It is Rolling Stone so more than likely garbage.
Case in point again.
AFTER WINNING OVER viewers on Saturday Night Live, Fallon cemented his reputation as one of television’s most beloved entertainers when he started hosting NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in 2009. Fallon’s goofy, affable, musically gifted, and middle-of-the-road approach to audiences and comedy made him easily likable and appealing to the masses.Okay I’m reading the Rolling Stone article and this paragraph… Look, I understand this was written to create more contrast between Jimmy Fallon’s on-screen persona and his behavior behind-the-scenes, but c’mon, don’t lie to your readers. No one liked Fallon back then and no one likes him now.
His show has more YouTube subscribers than Colbert and Kimmel combined.
The number of Youtube subscribers is neither a mark of quality or decency.
No, it’s specifically a rejoinder to “nobody liked him then or now” – an easily falsifiable statement.
No, but it is a mark of whether or not people like him, which was the question they were responding to.
We were talking about how many people like him, not quality or decency.
Just a mark of viewership and revenue. Broke basement bitches wouldnt get it
If you’re someone other than Jimmy Fallon, you’ve picked a strange hill to die on.
Funny how people who say “Is this really the hill you want to die on?” always think their position is totally reasonable.
Because all YouTube subscribers are actual humans.
People like him. They absolutely do.Hell, my least-favorite brother likes him more than Colbert—and even Amelie Gillette (the fuckin’ Hater, on this very site) was a fan of the Barry Gibb Talk Show, once upon a time.Fuck! I was a fan of the Barry Gibb Talk Show (mainly, though, because I was a fan of the Hater).Granted, I got tired of him a long, long time ago (i.e., well before he sucked T****’s c***), and the only reason I don’t hate his guts outright is that Tina Fey (a hero of mine—right up there with Letterman and Report-era Colbert) seems to love him.But she’s not the only one. Because plenty of people still love him. What are you talking about?
Jimmy Fallus is like McDonalds, you FilthyWhore. Bet you spend a lot of time in the parking lot
More like Jimmy Failin’
More like Jimmy Not Fucking Funny-on
He’s always been a complete and utter knob. Right from the start. And listening to him now, on that new podcast with the 4 other late-night hosts, really drives home how truly talentless he is. Meyers, Oliver, Colbert, and Kimmel are all funny — they each keep riffing, bouncing jokes off each other and throwing out funny observations ; and Fallon just doesn’t keep up, not even remotely. Then when he does speak up, it’s to ask a dumb question, or make a comment that shows he wasn’t paying attention or didn’t get a joke the rest of them were building. He would be embarrassed by how outclassed he is by his peers, if he ever became bright enough to be capable of embarrassment.
I’ve noticed this too. It’s hard to miss.
I thought he was often funny on SNL, but that was undercut by his “breaking” during sketches. Professionals don’t do that shit on the regular and it became clear that Fallon did it for attention.I’ve never watched his talk shows because I assumed they would be even more “look at me, everything I say is hilarious, so hilarious that I’m cracking up.”
I expect he’s a popular destination for interviewees because they know it’s going to be like an interview by a golden retriever. Late night obviously isn’t known for hard-hitting questions but he especially seems unchallenging.
I’ve long been convinced that Fallon is essentially what would happen if Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd’s character in Parks & Rec) somehow got a TV show.
He’s much funnier in the second episode and has some punchlines that not only riff but crack up the others.No question he’s not the sharpest. He’s a lovable goof. Personally Meyers is my least favorite. I’ve tried watching his show but he tries so hard to be biting and topical like Colbert but he just isn’t funny at all. I’ve literally seen him cringe at his own monologue.
Lovable? Yeeeesh. Takes all kinds I guess.
I mean…if he’s cringing at his own monologue, then that’s on his shitty writers….yeah?
Big Bowl Of Wrong. Meyers to me is the one who can do it all— run a show, write, perform and is not easily shook. Great staff, deep bench. Has a lot of friends in and out of the “bizness” and his A Closer Look is the one thing desperately missing through all the headlines right now.
Agree 100%. With the exception of one really annoying writer on his staff (who seems to benefit from the “coworkers-think-his-stuff-is-hilarious-even-if-the-audience doesn’t”-phenomenon) , his show is usually flawless. Especially “A Closer Look”.
He has a lot of respect and a long writing resume; his is the one show I honestly miss during this strike.
Not hitting all the woketard bingo slots?
He’s the reason I’m not listening to it. That and the whole thing, even for a good cause, seems a little self-fellating.
The only thing I think Jimmy does well is the musical parodies, otherwise he has no comedic timing, especially in a job where you interview people that’s a crucial skill to have
Four woketards who say the same shit talking for an hour? Sounds like a hoot
He truly is the worst of the Jimmys
As Mike Stoklasa of Red Letter Media once said: “Jimmy Fallon? The only thing he should host is a parasite.”
And yet, he still hasn’t apologized for that Donald Trump interview.
Even HIGNFY apologised for Boris Johnson!
He did kinda: The host of “The Tonight Show” tells The Hollywood Reporter he “made a mistake” and apologized “if I made anyone mad.” He adds that he “would do it differently” looking back on the Sept. 15, 2016 episode.
Wow, that apology slant-rhymes with this one, doesn’t it?
Yup, he’s clearly not sorry and just tellin you woketards to fuck off!
“If I made anyone mad.”
Emphasis on “kinda.”
Really? Guess Jimmy Fallon does have a little bit of a spine!
The fake laugh when a guest makes a joke gives a hint. Not a genuine type of person.
He and Ellen are worse than Hitler.
Combined or individually?
Jesus, that’s a weak apology. People were talking about contemplating suicide and he’s apologising for embarrassing their friends? It suggests he hasn’t even heard what people are saying and is just rushing out a cut-and-paste mea culpa.
“I’m sorry if …” is not an apology.
The best apologies are the ones that piss woketards off even more
Jesus fuck, Lorne, why THIS guy?
Some of his showrunners, especially the one before his current one, sound like they would have been large parts of the problems the employees go into for the story. I hate to hear that, I’ve always really liked Jimmy Fallon, and hope that he and his team can use this as a wakeup call to improve things.
To be honest I bet most complaints come from snowflakes in his staff
The “cry room” was admittedly pretty hilarious.
Where else would they come from?
I hope your boss treats you like shit.
Get off the computer at the library grandpa
I remember the first time I heard someone speak ill of Fallon, it was Tracy Morgan on the Howard Stern show. He said he had to threaten Fallon to stop his fake giggling on SNL. Fallon would do it on purpose to draw attention to himself and it would often piss off the other cast members but he didn’t care.
I personally stopped watching the Tonight Show because everything seemed force. He tried so hard to seem like he was having a good time, I found it annoying.
I feel justified for being on the Jimmy Fallon hate train since his SNL days.
Jerry Seinfeld is on record saying the description of the cue card incident is inaccurate. Should a Rolling Stone article with so many anonymous sources really be taken at face value? I don’t think I’m the only person recalling the UVA rape story.
‘Tonight Show’ staffers accuse Jimmy Fallon of scolding a staffer in front of Jerry Seinfeld, but the actor says the moment wasn’t ‘uncomfortable’ (yahoo.com)
Seinfield’s statement is odd. Seinfeld sent a statement to Rolling Stone: “This is so stupid. I remember this moment quite well… I teased Jimmy about a flub, and we all had a fun laugh about how rarely Jimmy is thrown off. It was not uncomfortable at all. Jimmy and I still occasionally recall it and laugh. Idiotic twisting of events.”Not saying he’s lying to cover for his friend or anything, but the idea that he and fallon still recall this incident and laugh seems deeply weird?
Must have been a really funny moment. Jerry and Jimmy are so fuckin bland that it might have been a highlight reel moment for them
Seinfeld is another bland vanilla comic that manages to offend woketards
Sounds legit.
maybe he can also apologize for being a talentless hack who only laughs at his own jokes
Imagine fostering a toxic workplace environment and the best thing you can wring out of it is “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”
I used to watch his show pretty regularly. Eventually I it became pretty evident to me that he is one of the most disingenuous people I’ve seen on TV. He acts exactly the same with everyone he brings on the show, constantly saying “OMG you are the best OMG” He’s overly enthusiastic about EVERY guest that comes on and it just reads as really fake to me. The dude sucks.
I get that it’s very popular and easy to pile on Fallon right now, but I didn’t find the Rolling Stone piece that damning. Nothing recounted was worse than anything that happened in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show. The younger generations just come across as being extremely fragile and unable to deal with a stressful and demanding environment that involves negative feedback. There are multiple quotes about “I contemplated suicide and it was the worst most abusive thing I ever put up with and I cried myself to sleep every night,” but then when it’s time to come up with real anecdotes to support these allegations, they’re all along the lines of “That monster Jimmy Fallon said my joke was lame.” Maybe your joke was lame! That’s not abusive behavior.
I go back and forth between “people are too sensitive” and “well, maybe we just shouldn’t be cunts to each other.”
We probably shouldn’t be, but late night TV has always been a notoriously cutthroat industry. Johnny Carson was a fucking gangster. The way these shows have always worked is, the host is the god-emperor of the show, and everyone tiptoes around him. So Jimmy Fallon comes in hungover, occasionally snaps at staffers, and doesn’t always offer constructive creative feedback with the utmost respect? Yup, that sounds like the late night hosts I’ve been reading about for 40 years. Man up.The quotes in the article paint a picture of a new generation of naive staffers who only know how to discuss professional adversity in the language of abuse and toxicity and victimhood. If they don’t like the environment at Late Night they can move to one of the many other primetime network late night shows.
If they don’t like the environment at Late Night they can move to one of the many other primetime network late night shows.
You think it’s easy to break into television, do you? Even behind the scenes jobs are not easy to get.Anyone who scores what they think is the job of their dreams, and then discovers it’s actually horrible because there’s one person being an absolute psycho, is going to find that situation hard to deal with.It’s not a “Man up” situation; it’s a “Won’t someone kick the legs out from under this jerk?” situation.Terrible people should be stopped. Nice people should not have to put up with terrible people. No, the world won’t magically be fine if we just accept terrible people being terrible.
Yeah how dare any worker demand a more positive work experience! IT’s SO EASY to get a job any where else!!!
lol “man up”, get fuckedYou have no clue what the work environment was like at this show. The closest you’d know is of testimonials of these staffers, AGE NOT GIVEN, who said it was intolerable. Instead of writing them all off as teenaged snowflakes, maybe have a shred of empathy and realize there was probably a lot of reasons why their workplace sucked. Your boss shouldn’t be an alcoholic, and that shouldn’t affect your work output. A reasonable employer wouldn’t consistently threaten employees with “there’s a dozen pages waiting to take your job the moment you fuck up”. There was reportedly one new producer EVERY YEAR. That’s not normal, and you’d hate those working conditions too. Did you not read the article? Just saw the comments and decided to post yours because “no one wants to work (for shitty companies and shitty bosses) anymore”? Piss off
Cunts deserve to be fucked especially juicy ones
Honestly, been waiting for the other shoe to drop on this for a while. The sibling of a friend of mine used to write on Fallon and they said he was always drunk or hungover and miserable.
I don’t own a television, so I’ve only ever seen a handful of scenes from his show, and I’m glad to hear you say that, because he ALWAYS seems drunk to me. Good to know I’m not imagining that.
Even a bland dude like Jimmy Phallus pisses off Woketards.
“Sorry if I . . . ah HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
His wannabe rockstar problem is probably the worst of him. What can you say, he’s a Masshole.
Sounds like a bunch of whiny crybaby snowflake liberals.
He’s not sorry, just got caught and does not want to lose his sweet gig.
As long as he feels bad now that people know about it, I guess it’s all okay.
I figured out his audience. The same ones defending him now. A bbunch of boomers who go with the flow knows. Why anyone would defend that girly guy escapes me. Look, now I sound like a boomer. Just keep taking the toxic behavior to show what a man you are. What utter horseshit. And boomers never did jack shit by the way, except elect trump and destroy the environment and any respect we had in the world. The grave is calling you. Enjoy the tonight show with jimmy fallon, who never created shit.