‘Fallon’ Is First Late-Night Show to Stop Paying Staff Amid Strike: Report
Non-writing crew on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ will reportedly begin an “unpaid leave of absence” Friday, while other shows continue to pay their workers.
NBC
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will reportedly stop paying its non-writing staff members on Friday.
A source close to NBC told HuffPost that Tonight Show crew members received the news during a call on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, multiple sources confirmed to Huffpost that Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are keeping their staffs compensated.
Fallon senior photo researcher Sara Kobos also tweeted Tuesday that Friday would be non-writing staff’s “last day of pay.”
“Meanwhile I hear folks at Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will continue to be paid,” she wrote.
This friday is our last day of pay. We (non-union staff who aren't writers) will be put on an "unpaid leave of absence" during the strike.
— Sarah Kobos (@skobos) May 16, 2023
Meanwhile I hear folks at Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will continue to be paid.
Solidarity with WGA! https://t.co/RQwREipx2H
Representatives for The Tonight Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
The Writers Guild of America last struck for 100 days from 2007 to 2008 and ultimately prevailed. (During that strike, several late-night hosts including David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, and Conan O’Brien reportedly used their own money to pay their non-writing workers.) This year’s walkout began on May 2 and entered its third week on Tuesday. Since then, late night has been airing reruns.
Earlier this month, Kobos called her boss out for failing to appear at a prior meeting where his non-writing staff was told they would not be paid after the strike’s first week. “They won’t even tell us if we will technically be furloughed,” Kobos wrote at the time. “Just active employees who aren’t paid.”
Kobos’ tweets apparently stirred NBC (and Fallon) into action; TheWrap reported that afterward, NBC opted to pay the staff through the next week, with Fallon set to pay the workers for the week after that. Now, however, it appears the Tonight staff is in the lurch once more.
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