The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon has returned to NBC studios in New York City at 30 Rockefeller Plaza after the host filmed the show remotely at home for the past few months amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But, just because Fallon and The Roots are back in the studio with the Tonight Show crew, it doesn’t mean the show will look the same as it did before the coronavirus lockdown.
On Monday, Fallon recorded his first show at 30 Rock in four months, and the episode opened with a video segment that featured the comedian on his way to work while wearing a face mask and getting his temperature taken at the door before being allowed inside the building.
Fallon had a more casual appearance – compared to the traditional suits he has worn in the past to host the show from the studio – and he sat down on a stool to talk to viewers instead of standing for a monologue. A panning camera showed that there was an empty studio audience and all staff members were practicing social distancing by standing at least six feet apart.
Everyone in the studio – except for Fallon and the three members of The Roots who were on stage – were wearing masks and face shields. He also revealed that everyone in the studio had tested negative for COVID-19, and he had to take a nose swab test before he was allowed into his office.
Fallon also showed cameras the “little slip of paper” that is on every part of the office to let people know the area has been disinfected. He said that they returned to the studio in the safest way possible, and that was the only way they would do it.
Fallon, 45, began the show by saying he is appreciative “as a New Yorker” that the state is starting to get back on its feet after getting hit hard by the coronavirus.
He then told people in states who have seen a resurgence in cases – like Florida, Arizona, and Texas – that he “knows how hard it is.” Fallon added that he was in the studio to show that there is “light at the end of the tunnel if we all do our part to keep each other safe.”
“I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but normalcy, any type of normalcy, feels great,” said Fallon. “So hopefully we can put a smile on your face for an hour every night and let you sit back and relax while we try to bring you a little bit of normal.”
Fallon noted that it’s not easy to do comedy in “the hardest times” like we are in now, but those are also the times “when we need it the most.”
“The show will be a little bit different than what you’re used to,” explained Jimmy Fallon. “There is no audience, the guests will be streaming from home, but I think, in some ways, we are getting used to different. But we are here for you and slowly and safely getting back to work and back to whatever normal is.”
During the episode, Fallon interviewed New York governor Andrew Cuomo and actress Charlize Theron. There was also a performance from Little Big Town.
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New episodes of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon air weeknights on NBC.
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