\n\tThe clip was short (watch it here<\/a>), but it epitomized The Tonight Show in a digital age where the worlds of comedy and celebrity are colliding with social virality. The video now has 109 million views on TikTok.<\/p>\n \n\tThe days when late night would set the culture are largely in the past, with social platforms now the driving force, particularly for people under 40. But that is a world that Fallon is himself comfortable in.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Malala surprise is a textbook example.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe\u2019ll text all day long: He saw this on TikTok, or this was fun on Instagram, or what if we did that? He\u2019s in it immensely,\u201d says Chris Miller, the showrunner of The Tonight Show, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s very much like a back and forth conversation we\u2019re having when we have these guests on the show to make sure that we are putting together something that doesn\u2019t feel like we\u2019re just hopping on a trend,\u201d adds Tonight Show supervising producer and head of digital Nick Dyer, adding that Fallon and the show had been tracking the \u201cBeez in the Trap\u201d trend for weeks. \u201cWe were like, \u2018should we do it?\u2019 And then we booked someone like Malala, who\u2019s so incredible and amazing and sweet, and that unexpected reveal of having her do the \u2018Beez in the Trap\u2019 trend, lip syncing to Nicki Minaj was just so funny that we were like, \u2018that\u2019s our bit, that feels like The Tonight Show.\u2019 It\u2019s a fun reveal. It\u2019s something that is unexpected and it doesn\u2019t. Feel like we\u2019re just regurgitating or repeating a trend that everyone else is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s not exactly a secret that late night is at something of a pivot point.<\/p>\n \n\tStephen Colbert\u2019s Late Show will end in a few months, with CBS exiting the late night space altogether. On ABC, Jimmy Kimmel has signed a one-year extension, suggesting that he doesn\u2019t want long-term deals going forward. Don\u2019t expect ABC to replace him with another late night show when he does decide to leave (as it happens, Fallon\u2019s monologue about Kimmel\u2019s suspension drew 120 million views, suggesting that the audience does care about late night).<\/p>\n \n\tNBC\u2019s Tonight Show, of course, is the gold standard of late night, from Steve Allen and Jack Paar to Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. Fallon has hosted the program since 2014. Despite the changing economics, NBC remains committed to the program, betting that Fallon, Miller and the team can adjust to the new world that the format finds itself in.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tChris Miller, the showrunner of The Tonight Show with supervising producer and head of talent Lori Blackman-Master.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by: Todd Owyoung\/NBC<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Tonight Show, is going to be on for 75 years a couple years from now [it debuted in 1954], and I always think, \u2018how many things that have happened in the industry over those 75 years where people were like, what are we going to do now?’\u201d Miller says. \u201cThis is a moment, let\u2019s not overcorrect. Let\u2019s not overreact to anything, all of a sudden, you\u2019ve got cable television and you\u2019ve got DVR and then the internet.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI just always sort of think, at its core, wherever you\u2019re consuming The Tonight Show, it\u2019s going to be the familiar Tonight Show. It shouldn\u2019t ever feel that different or be that different,\u201d he adds, noting that what the show has begun finding success with in digital still functions as an extension of the core program. \u201cWe want a fun monologue. We want comedy. We\u2019ll maybe do some act two comedy with a guest, maybe with audience members. We want great interviews where we get the talent to do something that you haven\u2019t seen before, music that you\u2019re hearing about.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAs viewing habits are constantly changing, we pivot and evolve right along with them,\u201d Dyer adds.<\/p>\n \n\tIndeed, many of the show\u2019s segments (in particular its celebrity-led games) play well across social platforms, despite being designed for TV.<\/p>\n \n\tTo that end, everyone knows now that, as the number of people watching late night live at 11:35 pm keeps dwindling, they are catching up in other places. YouTube<\/a> in particular has become the home<\/a> in many ways for late night, with both the network shows and wholly original digital upstarts battling for their share of the conversation.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think, from a traditional, longform, lean-back viewing standpoint, YouTube is still that platform where you can consume the full, extended interviews that we have, because Jimmy will talk to guests for much longer than what can fit into our linear broadcast,\u201d says Dyer. \u201cSo that\u2019s a great thing for people to check out after the show for more back and forth with Jimmy and guests. And then you look at something like TikTok and Instagram, and that\u2019s where you will tend to see the lion\u2019s share of those clips that go viral, where it\u2019s these short moments that are clipped out to go out on different social platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe social nature of late night has also meant that the producers are increasingly thinking about those platforms for original content. Some of it is short and surprising, like the Malala skit, while others are more elaborate. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re eventizing and making these moments when we have these big stars on the show, when they\u2019re not just talking to Jimmy, but they\u2019re also playing a game or doing something really fun with Jimmy, and then backstage, we\u2019re doing something creative and fun with them as well,\u201d Dyer says.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd the stars have noticed.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cEveryone is aware at this point that there\u2019s a second life to be had, and often a third and a fourth life, by doing our show because of our digital network,\u201d says Lori Blackman-Master, the supervising producer and head of talent for the show. \u201cAny publicist, manager, agent, and honestly, most of the guests themselves are well aware at this point of the reach that we have. What continues to surprise me and surprise them is the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to data provided by the show, video views across social platforms soared by 30 percent in 2025 to 16 billion, with the show now counting more than 114 million followers across its digital and social footprint.<\/p>\n \n\tBig pop culture programming and events remain the big driver, with content related to Stranger Things garnering more than 1.6 billion views alone; KPop Demon Hunters-related segments generating 380 million views and an October appearance from Taylor Swift drawing 270 million views.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t(l-r) Singers Rei Ami, Audrey Nuna, and Ejae of KPop Demon Hunters during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, October 7, 2025.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by: Todd Owyoung\/NBC<\/p>\n \n\tBut Blackman-Master says that the changing dynamics of fame have also changed how her team thinks about booking guests.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe really have broadened our scope of the types of people that we\u2019re booking,\u201d she says. \u201cWe will always have the A-listers, and they will always do well on socials, but we really are having a lot more fresh faces, a lot more unexpected types of guests, a lot more guests that have projects that are coming out that we have just right on the precipice of, like when it\u2019s exploding. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cA lot of our musical guests, we talk about it long before we book them, and by the time we have them on the show, everybody\u2019s talking about them,\u201d she adds. \u201cAnd I think that from my perspective, the digital networks that we have, and the second and third lives that this offers us, allow us to have more types of bookings like that on the show. And it\u2019s been really beneficial, both to the linear and to the social, and also to us as a booking department.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe future of late night TV as a business may be out of the hands of Fallon and Miller and the Tonight Show team, but they exude a confidence that they can and will adapt to meet the moment. The show has managed to evolve over the last 70-plus years while remaining true to what it is.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen you look at the clearance list, when people come, giant stars are bringing their mom and their dad,\u201d Miller notes. \u201cI\u2019ve worked on other shows where you don\u2019t get the moms and dads coming in.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve got The Tonight Show, this incredible thing that everybody knows,\u201d he says. \u201cThen you\u2019ve got Jimmy Fallon, we don\u2019t even need to say more than that. He\u2019s willing and game and talented and can sing and act or do whatever, and then we\u2019ve got this incredible booking department that just is somehow ahead of everything.<\/p>\n \n\tMiller adds, \u201cIt really is just a perfect storm of legacy and talent and amazing producers that we have with the show.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd people will be watching, even if it is more likely to be on their phone these days.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tNick Dyer<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by: Todd Owyoung\/NBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In October, the most viral trend on TikTok was the Nicki Minaj \u201cBeez in the Trap\u201d challenge. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,6517,6333,45007,210510,427,3973],"class_list":{"0":"post-432865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jimmy-fallon","12":"tag-nbc","13":"tag-tonight-show","14":"tag-tonight-show-starring-jimmy-fallon","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-youtube"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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