Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, September 7th, 2023
In defense of Chris Hayes
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, September 7th, 2023.
ANOTHER ONE OF HOLLYWOOD'S OPEN SECRETS GETS SOME PRESS COVERAGE
Hollywood is filled with open secrets about some of your favorite celebrities. If you are a jerk to enough people, if you have a track record of misbehaving and bullying people, it will become well known inside the industry. And sometimes (although not often enough), those stories will eventually leak out into public view.
Jimmy Fallon's drinking issues have long been a source of rumors and complaints inside Hollywood. You don't go through a new showrunner every year or so without having some serious issues taking place behind the scenes. And over the years, a few stories have bubbled up about Fallon, although never creating enough of an impact to seriously damage his career.
Tiny Fey had some not-so-nice things to say about Fallon in her autobiography Bossypants and his name surfaced last year when allegations of sexual grooming and underage sexual conduct that centered around a former member of the Saturday Night Live cast included a bonus appearance by Jimmy Fallon:
At one after-party in November 2001, six months before she says Sanz assaulted her, the fan sat with Fallon and other NBC and "SNL" employees in a VIP area drinking beer, her lawsuit says. She told Fallon she was a junior in high school. "So you have a few years before you graduate," he was quoted as saying before then asking about her college plans. The suit says the other people at the table "became very quiet" when the fan said she was a high schooler. She said Fallon introduced her to Lorne Michaels at the same party.
Rolling Stone has a piece out today that includes comments from 16 current and former staffers of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. They say their mental health was impacted because of their alleged mistreatment behind the scenes:
According to most employees who spoke to Rolling Stone, it’s common knowledge behind the scenes that Fallon’s temperament, mood, and treatment of staffers is erratic. These employees say they’ve witnessed Fallon snap at crew members, express irritation over the smallest of things, and berate and belittle staffers out of frustration. Three former employees say that he berated them in front of other colleagues and crew members.
“It was like, if Jimmy is in a bad mood, everyone’s day is fucked,” one former employee says. “People wouldn’t joke around in the office, and they wouldn’t stand around and talk to each other. It was very much like, focus on whatever it is that you have to do because Jimmy’s in a bad mood, and if he sees that, he might fly off.”
“We’re up against it” was a commonly-used phrase around the office among employees, they say, to warn each other if Fallon was “not having a good day” and therefore, everyone else was in for a rough one as well.
And you can read into it what you will that there aren't that many people jumping in publicly to defend Fallon's alleged behavior on the show to the magazine:
Rolling Stone contacted more than 50 Tonight Show employees, past and present, during the reporting for this story. After reaching out to representatives for Fallon and NBC, Rolling Stone reached out to an additional 30 current and former staffers. While many of them praised Fallon’s immense talent and comedic gifts, not a single one agreed to speak on the record or had positive things to say about working on The Tonight Show. Nor would any of the program’s nine showrunners since 2014 comment about the program’s namesake on the record – they wouldn’t even give statements of support, as is common in the entertainment industry.
By late this afternoon, Rolling Stone followed up its initial reporting with a story about a Zoom call Fallon made to staff following the publishing of the investigation. During the call, he reportedly apologized to the staff:
Two employees who were in the meeting say Fallon apologized and he said he did not intend to “create that type of atmosphere for the show.”
“It’s embarrassing and I feel so bad,” the employees say Fallon said. “Sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends… I feel so bad I can’t even tell you.”
And NBC is doing a bit of damage control of its own, issuing a statement to People and apparently helped the magazine find the one "current employee" of the show who thinks everything on the show is just swell:
A current employee of the show who spoke with PEOPLE described Fallon as "super communicative" and "a really, really positive guy."
"He makes a point of commending you when you do a great job and when he's happy," said the employee, who preferred to remain anonymous. "And any feedback I've received is always I like, 'Hey, we don't need to do that again.' It's been very constructive and helpful for me in continuing to put together a show that he's happy with. I've never been belittled, yelled at, nothing like that. It's all exactly how a boss should give feedback to an employee."
It will be interesting to see if this is one of those stories that has legs or if it drifts away into the ether after a few days because Fallon isn't on the air right now.
ODDS AND SODS
* I mentioned yesterday that Warner Bros. Television Group had apparently suspended the overall production deals with a number of its high-profile producers. A couple of readers wondered why the studio had waited so long to make the move and what the rationale was behind it.
I think it's two-fold: WBTV saves money in the short term. But the studios are also hoping to pressure producers and showrunners into pushing WGA negotiators into coming to a quick agreement. And that's not a crazy strategy. The 2008 WGA STRIKE ended in large part because a small group of influential showrunners threatened to cross the WGA picket line if the union didn't agree to the terms previously agreed to by the DGA.
IN DEFENSE OF CHRIS HAYES
When MSNBC's Rachel Maddow announced a couple of years ago that she was stepping away from the majority of her primetime schedule and a search began to find a replacement. That search also prompted a lot of speculation that other changes might come to the network's primetime schedule, with a lot of the talk focusing on Chris Hayes.
At the time, I wrote a defense of Hayes, who is someone I consider to be one of the most interesting news anchors working in the industry:
When he moved to primetime in 2013, All In With Chris Hayes was a reflection of his editorial point of view. But it was also a pretty traditional cable news show. But the eventual success of Maddow's approach gave Hayes a bit more cover to experiment and his show evolved into its own distinctive editorial mix. His A-block editorial/commentary each night is a textbook example of what you want in a cable news show. Yes, he obviously has a political point of view and he is comfortable expressing it. But unlike the competition on Fox, it's never 90% opinion and 10% vague facts. He backs up what he says with figures and builds an argument with context and relevance in the same way that he used to craft arguments back in his early blogging days.
And today MSNBC announced that Jen Psaki is moving to primetime, replacing All In With Chris Hayes on Monday nights. The network insists that the decision is not a reflection of Hayes's future, but a desire to give a higher profile to Psaki, the former Biden White House Press Secretary who is seen as a rising star at the network.
I don't disagree Psaki deserves a higher profile, but I hope this doesn't suggest Hayes's future is endangered at the network. He has become a real powerhouse primetime anchor and losing him would be a gut punch.
TWEET OF THE DAY
WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH:
* Dear Child Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Gamera -Rebirth- (Netflix)
* Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
* Search Party With Brandon Jordan Season Finale (Weather)
* Star Trek: Lower Decks Season Premiere (Paramount+)
* Top Boy Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
* Virgin River Season Premiere (Netflix)
* What If (Netflix)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH:
A Time Called You (Netflix)
Burning Body (Netflix)
Convicting A Murderer Series Premiere (Daily Wire+)
How To Date Billy Walsh (Prime Video)
Minx Season Two Finale (Starz)
Pokémon: To Be A Pokémon Master: Ultimate Journeys: The Series: Part One (Netflix)
Rosa Peral's Tapes (Netflix)
Self Reliance (Hulu)
Selling The O.C. Season Premiere (Netflix)
Spy Ops Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Changeling Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.
SEE YOU FRIDAY!
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.