Non-writing staff members on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” will not be paid after this Friday and are being put on an “unpaid leave of absence” as the WGA writers’ strike nears its fourth week, one of the show’s staffers said Tuesday.
“This Friday is our last day of pay,” tweeted Sarah Kobos, the “Tonight Show’s” research coordinator, in a thread containing her previous updates on the staff’s payment status amid the strike. “We (non-union staff who aren’t writers) will be put on an ‘unpaid leave of absence’ during the strike.”
“Meanwhile I hear folks at ‘Late Night With Seth Meyers’ and ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ will continue to be paid,” she continued. “Solidarity with WGA!”
An unnamed source reportedly confirmed the show’s decision to the Huffington Post Tuesday.
NBC didn’t immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The decision to halt payment for the show’s staff is essentially how NBC and Fallon signaled things might go back at the beginning of the strike. Following a public pressure campaign led in part by Kobos, NBC agreed to pay the staff for two weeks, and Fallon said he himself would pay for a third week.
“I have a very good update! We ended up having our production meeting this [morning] too and @jimmyfallon was there,” Kobos tweeted on May 3. “He got NBC to give us a second week of pay, and he will be paying us himself for a third week. We also are going to have healthcare extended through [September].”
Fallon spoke out in support of the WGA strike at the Met Gala just before the strike began.
“I wouldn’t have a show if it wasn’t for my writers, and I support them all the way,” Fallon said on the red carpet.
Kobos would go on to call out her boss on Twitter for not following through on his word, saying Fallon didn’t attend a meeting in which the staffers were told they wouldn’t be paid during the strike. She later told her followers Fallon did show up to another meeting, and that he would pay their salaries out-of-pocket for an additional week.
Several other late-night shows that have been put on hiatus due to the strike — including NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” — are reportedly continuing to pay their staff, unnamed sources told the Huffington Post.
For all of TheWrap’s WGA Strike coverage, click here.
