As other late-night TV hosts banded together in a display of solidarity against government pressure, Jimmy Fallon says he wants to “keep my head down” and mostly leave politics out of his show.
Appearing on CNBC on Tuesday to promote his new unscripted series, “On Brand,” Fallon said of his late-night show:
Our show’s never really been that political, you know. We hit both sides equally, and we try to make everybody laugh, and that’s really the way our show really works. I mean, our monologues are kind of the same that we’ve been doing since Johnny Carson was doing ‘The Tonight Show.’ So, really, I just keep my head down and make sure the jokes are funny.
In his monologue Tuesday on NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” Fallon lightly poked fun at the government shutdown and the speeches to military leaders by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In 2016, Fallon received significant backlash after playfully touching then-candidate Trump’s hair during an interview. He later told The Hollywood Reporter that he “made a mistake” and apologized “if I made anyone mad.”
Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert hosted each other on their respective shows Tuesday, cracking jokes about the president and being sent to Guantanamo Bay together. Kimmel’s show was briefly taken off the air by ABC in September over comments he made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, while Colbert’s CBS show will be permanently canceled next year.
“I am so honored to be here with my fellow ‘no-talent late-night loser,’” Kimmel said when introduced on Colbert’s show. Kimmel returned the favor, hosting his show Tuesday from New York City. In his introduction of Colbert, Kimmel said: “Our first guest tonight is an Emmy-winning late-night talk show host, who, thanks to the Trump administration, is now available for a limited time only!” In another show of support, fellow late-night host Seth Meyers of NBC joined the stage on Kimmel’s show, and the three comics jointly shared a photo of the moment on their Instagram accounts. Trump has often railed against late-night hosts. After the cancellation of Colbert’s show was announced in July, he wrote on Truth Social: The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone. These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television. It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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