Do we like Jimmy Fallon?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A decent record and real charity work, balanced by a workplace report, an old blackface sketch and a habit of going easy on guests.
Fallon came up through Saturday Night Live and now fronts The Tonight Show, and his whole brand is being the nice, giggly bloke who loves pop culture. He has said he doesn't go in hard on politics, with the line “It's just not what I do.” That explains a lot about the man: a host built to make guests comfortable, not to grill them.
The oldest stain is a 2000 SNL sketch where he impersonated Chris Rock in blackface. When it resurfaced in 2020 he apologised on Twitter, calling it a “terrible decision” and saying there was no excuse. It's twenty-odd years old and he owned it quickly, which counts for something, but it's still a mark.
The harm check comes out reasonably clean. He opened a 2017 show with a pointed monologue on Charlottesville, called the delay in denouncing white supremacists shameful, and later donated to an immigrant legal charity in Trump's name after Trump told him to “be a man”. There's no record of him campaigning against LGBTQ+ people. A 2023 row over calling trans actress Hunter Schafer “bud” was disputed, with defenders saying he talks like that to all his guests, and Schafer didn't appear offended.
The backstage story is messier. In 2023 Rolling Stone reported, via anonymous current and former staff, that Fallon's moods made The Tonight Show a toxic workplace. CBS reported that he apologised to staff on a Zoom call and NBC said it had investigated concerns. Some current staff told other outlets the piece misrepresented their experience, so it's a mixed picture, not a verdict.
There's also a heavier claim to be careful with. A 2022 amended filing in a case against former SNL cast member Horatio Sanz named Fallon among those it called “enablers”, alleging he was as aware of Sanz's conduct as Sanz's colleagues. Sanz's lawyer called the claims categorically false, Fallon's reps had no comment, and the article doesn't report a court finding or any specific act by Fallon himself. It stays unproven.
The recent stuff: in June 2026 Fallon interviewed Conor McGregor, who had lost an appeal in a civil case brought by Nikita Hand, and critics online called the booking spineless. No response from Fallon had been reported at the time. In February 2026 the A.V. Club, citing The Hollywood Reporter, said he had stepped back from a pasta sauce venture with Tommy Mottola, who appears in the Epstein files. Neither side commented on the record.