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After four months of broadcasting from his attic, Jimmy Fallon finally went back to the office.
On July 13, 2020, Jimmy Fallon walked into 30 Rockefeller Plaza wearing a face mask, got his temperature checked, cleared building security, and rode the elevator up to tape The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon from an NBC studio for the first time since the COVID-19 shutdown began in March. He became the first major American late-night host to resume studio production during the pandemic, trading his home living room for a reconfigured Studio 6A — not his usual 6B — and swapping the suit for a sweater in front of an empty house.
- Fallon returned to a modified Studio 6A at Rockefeller Center on July 13, 2020, after four months of remote at-home broadcasts, making him the first major late-night host back in a studio during the pandemic.
- There was no studio audience; the limited crew and members of house band The Roots wore masks and face shields, stayed at least six feet apart, and had all tested negative for COVID-19.
- The episode featured a parody song, “It’s Beginning to Look a Bit Like Normal,” with a glitchy virtual cameo from Tracy Morgan, plus remote interviews with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Charlize Theron, and a performance by Little Big Town.
A Studio Built Around Six Feet of Distance
The production Fallon walked back into looked nothing like the one he left in March. With no live audience allowed, the show relied on a skeleton crew, and every person on set — including The Roots — wore a mask and face shield and kept six feet of separation, on top of having tested negative for the virus beforehand. Fallon himself ditched the desk entirely, addressing the camera from a stool for most of the hour.
That physical setup drove the tone of the episode as much as any joke did. Fallon acknowledged the strangeness of it directly, telling viewers the goal was simply to get back to something resembling a routine for them, even from six feet away from his own band.
“Normalcy, any type of normalcy feels great. So hopefully we can put a smile on your face for an hour every night and let you sit back and relax while we try to bring you just a little bit of normal.”
The Cold Open Doubled as a Safety Briefing
Rather than open on a monologue, the episode opened on Fallon’s actual commute — mask on, temperature checked, security cleared, elevator ride up — turning the return itself into the cold open. It was as much a demonstration of new protocol as it was a bit, showing viewers exactly what a network late-night taping now required before a single joke got told.
The comedy landed right after that, with the “It’s Beginning to Look a Bit Like Normal” parody number and a glitchy, remote-style virtual appearance from Tracy Morgan playing off the very technical hiccups that had defined months of at-home broadcasting for shows across the format — a stretch also covered in The Office Cast Reunites for Zoom Wedding.
Cuomo, Theron and Little Big Town Filled Out the Hour
With guests still unable to visit in person, the interview segments stayed remote: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and actress Charlize Theron both joined Fallon from wherever they were sheltering, and Little Big Town delivered the night’s musical performance. It was a format Fallon had leaned on throughout the shutdown, but paired now with the studio return, it read less like a stopgap and more like the new shape of the show — a hybrid Theron herself was navigating on the promotional trail for The Old Guard that same summer.
Fallon’s first night back drew a curious audience wanting to see exactly how a network taping could function under mask mandates and six-foot spacing, and the answer was: carefully, deliberately, and one temperature check at a time. Whether other hosts followed him back into their own studios that summer was the next thing to watch for.
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