Tonight Show non-writing staff reportedly put on “unpaid leave of absence”
Two weeks after Fallon publicly pledged to support his “whole staff,” some members of The Tonight Show crew are going without paychecks
Aux News Late Night
Amid the WGA strike, The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon has gone dark. All the late-night shows have because there’s no one willing to write them. Nevertheless, two weeks ago, mere hours before the strike was announced, Fallon pledged support for his whole staff while walking the red carpet. “I wouldn’t have a show if it wasn’t for my writers. I support them all the way,” he told Variety. “I support my whole staff.” It’s the kind of thing that sounds great, but in fact, requires some follow through.
Earlier today, Huffington Post reported Fallon’s non-writing staff has been placed on “unpaid leave of absence,” with an anonymous source claiming it “felt a little like a classic layoff.” On Monday night, staffers received emails from HR, and the next day, they were told this would be their last paid week. “Our final paychecks will come in next week,” the source said.
The Tonight Show did not respond to the A.V. Club’s request for comment.
Sarah Kobos, a photo coordinator at The Tonight Show, was already tweeting about the issue, stating she heard “folks at Late Night With Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will continue to be paid.“ In an email to the A.V. Club, Kobos said she “stands fully in solidarity with WGA” but noted how unfortunate it is when a company like Comcast continues to disregard the people who make NBC’s entertainment.
“Strikes are supposed to be disruptive!” Kobos said. “A win for them is a win for everyone in this industry. I think we all just had hopes that NBC, an incredibly rich company due in large part to the talent it employs, would do right by us. Instead, they are putting us on what they call an unpaid leave and expecting everyone to just hold tight.”
This has been an issue since the strike’s announcement. After the WGA ordered the strike, non-writing staff at The Tonight Show heard they would not be paid throughout and their health insurance would end in May. Ultimately, after some public pressure, the staff was given three weeks’ pay, with Fallon covering the third week and healthcare through September. However, it seems three weeks was all the support he could offer the whole staff.
“It’s well known this industry already underpays folks,” Kobos said. “It was also a bummer to hear that other late night shows, even at NBC, are continuing to pay their staff thanks to the generosity of their hosts. While I am happy for their workers, it certainly isn’t helping morale that the same isn’t happening here.”
35 Comments
Not fucking surprising.
I know a lot of people around here don’t like him, but I haven’t heard anything about him treating his staff poorly (unlike another late night host named James).
I never hated him as much as other people have here, for sure, but he has the pull to support them, and he’s not.
He’s not supporting them, because he’s not paying everyone’s salaries? That’s your stance, huh? How many people is it, exactly, and what’s the dollar amount? And for how long? And what about medical? He on the hook for that too?
His own staff has called him out: https://www.newsweek.com/tonight-show-employee-calls-out-jimmy-fallon-amid-writers-strike-1797989
One person counts as “his own staff”?
Don’t like Fallon and don’t watch him. But, he is the frontman for the show, not the owner. He doesn’t likely have much authority in this decision, because he doesn’t have a ton of financial leverage nor frontman-leverage (since the show is already off the air). He could pay the staff out of his own pocket, but I don’t think those pockets are that deep for a significant period of time.The writers voted to strike, and they need to accept the consequences of a strike. It’s unfortunate that there are a lot of others impacted by the shutdown of the industry. Would be better if the banded together for common negotiations with trade, but writers tend to think they are special.
I own a manufacturing business and during the pandemic when the shit hit the fan, I immediately stopped paying myself to ensure that all my employees were paid. We are not a minimum wage shop, not even close. It’s not sustainable. While I’m not Fallon-wealthy, I am not poor by any means. It’s economy of scale. Me paying 20 people weekly (and paying for healthcare) blew a hole in the bucket very quickly. If he has 50+ or more (likely more), how much do you think that costs to support them for a week? A month? Longer? It’s very likely not possible. And to other’s comments, he’s not the owner. He’s just an employee too.
One million dollars can pay 100 workers 10k each for a month. The questions are, how much does Fallon make per year? And how much could he make without the show? Could he make anywhere near as much as an actor, or by doing stand-up shows selling tickets directly to the public? Or by doing a podcast with ad spots? In short, without his privileged platform and staff support, where would he be?
Fallon reportedly has a net worth in the $60 Million range.
Plus health, and benefits. And you have zero idea what those 100 staff are making. ‘Privileged platform,’ huh? Ok. Forget that he worked a career to get there and get that job like anyone else in any field. Also, I guess we should forget that all of of the staff, including he himself (because he’s an employee too) are were getting paid to do their jobs to build his ‘privileged platform.’ Sheesh. Conversely (using your logic)- without him there drawing in the advertising revenue and performing, where would the staff be?
“without him there drawing in the advertising revenue and performing, where would the staff be?” – doing the same job for an equally, if not more talented host, I reckon.
Dude, did you miss the part where every other late night host is doing it except for Fallon? In your paragraphs of sub-LinkedIn post, Business 101 rambling where you explain how it’s “not sustainable,” did you ever wonder how it’s sustainable for every other host to do?
Lot more than 50 people – when the Tonight Show moved to NYC after Leno left, there were 164 staff.
the staff in question is the non-writing staff, which didn’t choose to go on strike. They are just collateral victims.
And Fallon makes over 20 million per year for the show so he certainly does have some cash to help out, if he wants to.
That said, it is not because the production company/studio isn’t paying the non-writing staff anymore that Fallon isn’t doing anything to help out.
“The writers voted to strike, and they need to accept the consequences of a strike.”
What does this have to do with the writers accepting consequences? The writers are currently on picket lines, not making money. Do you think they haven’t accepted the consequences?
A lot of those other positions are probably union jobs right? Is there anything stopping those unions from kicking some money to those employees just to keep them from being super annoyed and to show solidarity with the WGA?
I am sure the UAW and teamsters will open their hearts and wallets.
They won’t even divulge the location of the sandwich shop.
As if people need another reason not to watch Fallon.
NBC doesn’t just have a bunch of cash floating around to pay employees to not work. They’re still spending almost all their budget trying to make it 1997 again through science or magic
NBC is still selling advertising for the rerun shows. They could devote some of that income to the idled staff.
As a reminder, Conan paid all his staff during the last strikehttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/pays-work-obrien-156143/
Conan is actually paying his show staff now while he is in-between shows. His TBS show ended and there is no ETA for the HBO Show, but he is still paying a partial Salary at least to everyone who will come work for him at HBO.
So if Jimmy Fallon doesn’t allow himself to get bled for millions of dollars, he’s a bad person? “I support my staff” doesn’t mean “I will personally pay my staff out of my own checking account.” Blame management. Jimmy just works here.
He earns something like $16M/year and is worth 60. I doubt he’d be bled dry supporting the staff during a brief strike.
I don’t think you understand how rich people like Fallon are. This dude has been making 16 mill a year for years. If he gave a thousand dollars a week to each of his employees for an entire calendar year, the TOTAL amount would be less than a quarter of his annual salary (from just this one job).If this multi-millionaire gave the slightest shit about his employees who do the work to sustain his cushy life, he could easily pay them for a couple months out of pocket, no fucking problem. Does he have to? Of course not. Would it make his life harder in the slightest? Of course not. So it’s fucking bullshit that he isn’t doing it.Do not make excuses for the extremely wealthy. The difference between their lives and ours are unfathomable, and pretending they play by our rules is how things stay this way.
Jimmy Fallen is a piece of shit. He has no solidarity with the WGA:
https://www.newsweek.com/tonight-show-employee-calls-out-jimmy-fallon-amid-writers-strike-1797989
Jimmy starting to realize it takes a lot of people to make him look mediocre…..
“Two weeks after Fallon publicly pledged to support his “whole staff,””Cool, so you understand that by “supporting” his writers he meant that he hopes they get a good deal, and that by “supporting” his staff he never meant that he was going to pay them not to work.
You ALSO get that the writers, who are on strike, are also not getting paid?
Honestly, how many years are you from graduating grade school?
“It’s well known this industry already underpays folks,” Kobos said.If so, why does she work in it? She’s clearly got skills that would translate to other industries…
Because she enjoys the work but she’d also like to be compensated fairly for it. That isn’t the gotcha you think it is.
She’s making the choice to work in the industry, though, even though she has the choice not to, so clearly they’re compensating her fairly for doing the job they’re hired her to do. If someone chooses to get paid less in order to work in a more “fun” industry, that’s certainly their call, but it’s also a choice.
Yeah fuck trying to make anything better just take the scraps they give and deal with it. Christ, that’s depressing. You go ahead and live that way. Let others do the work.
How is she “trying to make anything better”? She’s complaining that her job doesn’t pay enough, and complaining that she’s not being paid because another group of employees have gone on strike (which is of course absolutely their right). Really trying to make things better would be to find another job, and show the industry that she won’t accept being treated this way.