The past five months have been rough for Jimmy Fallon.
It started on day one of the WGA strike when one of his staffers publicly called him out for ghosting his own writers at a meeting about the late-night work stoppage. Then came the damning Rolling Stone report about his allegedly “toxic” backstage behavior including hangover-fueled outbursts and dismissive treatment that brought writers to tears.
When Fallon finally returned to the Tonight Show stage on Monday night, he surprised nobody by declining to directly address the allegations against him, instead lobbing jokes at Lauren Boebert and The Golden Bachelor and performing a song on the ukulele about everything else he’d missed over the summer.
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It wasn’t until after his opening monologue, when Fallon sat down behind his desk, that he seemed—just maybe—to allude to the drama that dominated the headlines about him.
The host became visibly emotional as told viewers, “I had a lot of time, five months, a lot of time to really just sit and think. And I finally just took a moment and realized how grateful I am for all of this and for this show.”
“I really love this job, I love doing it,” Fallon continued. “I love telling jokes, I love interviewing people, I love making you laugh. I’m very lucky to have this show, and I want to thank you all for supporting and choosing to have me in your bedrooms at nighttime.”
“This is what I love to do, and I want to do it for a long time,” he added. “I’m so happy to be back.”
