Photo: Todd Owyoung/NBC
First on LateNighter: Steve Martin landed himself a spot on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon‘s injured list late this afternoon when he cut his finger—playing a game of Catchphrase, of all things,
The culprit was surprisingly low-tech: a sharp-edged table. We hear taping paused briefly after the segment so that an NBC nurse could tend to the 80-year-old comedy legend’s hand. Martin, promoting the Season 5 premiere of Only Murders in the Building with co-stars Martin Short and Selena Gomez, appeared unfazed and carried on with the taping.
The incident places Martin in a small but colorful club of late-night guests and hosts who have left the stage with real-life bumps and bruises. Fallon himself knows the feeling well. In 2010, while still hosting Late Night, he slipped while competing in a “Martini race” against Chelsea Handler and cut his own hand on broken glass. Conan O’Brien memorably suffered a concussion in 2009 after a slip during a race with Teri Hatcher. David Letterman canceled a Late Show episode after snowboarder Tara Dakides fell 20 feet to the ground while performing a live stunt. Even Johnny Carson once injured a rib rehearsing for a sketch on The Tonight Show.
Asked during an off-air Q&A why no one had noticed the problem with the table earlier, Fallon joked, “Well, Steve cut his finger in rehearsal [too], so we kept it in for the actual show.”
Martin’s Tonight Show show appearance—bloody Catchphrase game and all—is set to air on NBC tonight at 11:35pm ET/PT.