Jimmy Fallon's Two Daughters Serve As 'The Tonight Show' Band In Place Of The Roots

Mar 27, 2020 by apost team

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, producers put Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show on hold. But fans of the show need not despair. Filmed at Fallon’s home, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: At Home Edition went live last week, with episodes airing nightly on YouTube and NBC. But left without the show’s normal band — the American hip-hop group the Roots — Fallon’s daughters stepped in.

On Monday’s wholesome at-home edition of the show, the two girls — Winnie, 6, and Franny, 5, — opened with a little musical improvisation. While the notes didn’t seem quite right, and though the adorable duo might have been a bit off beat, Fallon’s two children seemed to enjoy their glamorous new jobs as show musicians. Franny pounded the keys one-handed while Winnie happily shook a cowbell, which was at least half the size of her head. Shouting over his daughters’ impromptu ad libbed symphony, Fallon introduced the show with his daughter’s colorfully draw Tonight Show sign. All throughout the unpolished but charming cacophonous intro, the family dog, Gary, joined the crew, looking on surprisingly undisturbed from the corner.

"I want to thank Franny and Winnie," Fallon said. "Gary the dog is here,” Fallon added as his wife, who filmed the episode, panned the camera to their golden retriever.

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Despite the show’s obviously stripped-down nature, Fallon largely stuck to the format fans know and love. He still delivered a monologue, though he stood in his home and read from a piece of paper instead of the normal studio setup.

"Everyone's crossing the street because they're socially distancing, which is great, but just because you're doing that doesn't mean you don't have to smile or wave," Fallon quipped in his monologue. "You can do that. You don't have to not be a person."

The Tonight Show host also had guests on the show via video conference. The Daily Show host Trevor Noah was the first guest to call in via iPhone from self-quarantine in his New York City apartment. Noah even had a bit of fun with the video chat format, changing his background to a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Inevitably, the topic of social distancing came up again when Fallon asked how Noah was holding up with everything.

Surprisingly, Noah said that apart from worrying about the economic effects of the outbreak and the stressful news from the outside world, Noah’s life hadn’t changed much since self isolating. Noah attributed his relaxed attitude to the fact that he loves to stay indoors.

“My mom had to chase me out of the house to go and play with other kids because I wanted to be at home, I wanted to play video games and I wanted to watch TV,” Noah said. “I don’t go outside. I don’t need to go outside.”

For Fallon’s second and final guest on Monday’s show, the host interviewed DJ D-Nice about his live-streamed dance parties that have gone viral — Club Quarantine. The DJ explained how he initially just wanted to play music for his friends over Instagram Live, but over the course of a couple of days, the stream attracted as many as 100,000 viewers, including Drake, Jennifer Lopez and Michelle Obama.

"A 100,000 people were in that Live to hear what I wanted to play, and I was able to play from my heart,” DJ D-Nice said in the interview.

 And the beauty of it all is that DJ D-Nice played the sets from the safety of his kitchen.

So while Fallon’s at-home show might be just a shadow of its original with its barebones setup and improvised family band, it also brings something that feels more genuine and wholesome compared to the glitz and glam of normal studio episodes. That’s not to mention that Fallon’s at-home show is also raising money for a good cause. Every episode in the series highlights a new charity like No Kid Hungry.

What do you think of Jimmy Fallon's at-home edition of The Tonight Show? Let us know what you think, and pass this on to your friends and family.