Earlier on Thursday, Rolling Stone published allegations from two current and 14 former employees, including production crew and writers, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Rolling Stone claimed they had approached an additional 80 current and former employees, but “not a single one agreed to speak on the record or had positive things to say about working on the Tonight Show”.
According to Rolling Stone’s report, multiple sources alleged Fallon had a history of “outbursts” and lashing out at staff when under pressure; that previous senior staff on the show had bullied and belittled them; and that guests’ dressing rooms were commonly known as “cry rooms”, where employees could go let out their stress.
Nine showrunners have worked on the Tonight Show since Fallon took over from Jay Leno in 2014; a much faster turnover than comparable late night shows like Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Conan has his moments, but I much rather see him write/act in skits about current events than sucking up to celebrities. Peak Conan was when he was still fresh from being a writer for The Simpsons, and I seem to find him less and less funny as the years go on.
I’d recommend giving his travel show “Conan Obrien Must Go” a shot. More just Conan being Conan and it’s great.
Wasn’t that years ago what he did when one of the networks fired him, but he couldn’t go on another network because of contractual reasons? I think might have seen some of it. Or maybe it was the build-up to it. I might give it a shot, but if there are celebrities on it, I’ll tune out. Celebrity worship makes me want to puke and no pre-written banter between a host and a celeb can hold my attention for long.
No, that was something earlier when he quit NBC when Jay Leno wanted a show again and Conan didn’t want them to change the time of the show from what Carson had. He did a live show. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was something like “banned from TV”. He was mostly looking for a way to keep taking care of his employees: as he always did, including out of his own pocket during the last, previous writer’s strike.
I’ve been really liking his podcast. He still has celebrities on, but the idea is that it’s more people he wants to talk to rather than people promoting stuff, or people he had on his show who he never got to have a proper conversation with and he’ll sit with them to a proper in-depth talk for like an hour or so. And sometimes they’ll do an episode where just a random member of the public calls in and he interviews them instead. Also one of his co-hosts is his assistant who does not respect his position as her boss at all, so that’s a good dynamic.
Weird, I’ve actually found him to be funnier and more witty/insightful as the years have gone on. I couldn’t stand him back in the '90s.