Jimmy Fallon’s “sellout” moment just came back to haunt him — and fans can’t believe the twist.NH
Boy oh boy, what a coup for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon! Last night, the show landed a special guest, Bianca Fernandez, this year’s winner from … On Brand With Jimmy Fallon. The biggest sellout in late-night just found a way to take his money-grubbing racket to the next level.
It’s almost like Fallon looked at the fate of Stephen Colbert, whose show allegedly ended because it was losing $40 million a year, and said, “Not on my watch.” His Tonight Show is packed to the brim with branded content, building sponsors into the sketch names and using the products themselves as punchlines. No shade — everyone knows KitchenAid Go® Cordless battery-powered appliances are hilarious.
Wouldn’t early 2000s Fallon have ridiculed such brazen ploys during his Weekend Update days on Saturday Night Live? He would have had a lot of material to work with, including his shameless plugs for his own products, like children’s books and other Jimmy merch.
But the comedian kicked it up a notch this fall with On Brand With Jimmy Fallon, a show that Cracked called “cynical, embarrassing and hard to watch.” It’s a reality competition show in which contestants vie not to survive but to sell you things, from Dunkin’ Donuts to Captain Morgan. The show’s core concept: Why wait for the commercials when the entire program can be a commercial?
The synergy wheel continued to turn as Fallon used The Tonight Show as a commercial for On Brand, a show that is already one big advertisement. Tune in and watch Jimmy eat his young.
The circle completed last night when Fernandez showed up to celebrate her win as the world’s biggest shill … er, On Brand’s Innovator of the Year. “To be here is a dream come true,” she gushed. “To know that brands like KitchenAid and Therabody believed in me and my concepts … it’s, like, otherworldly.”
Otherworldly is one word for it. A fawning Fallon did his best to ingratiate, lauding Fernandez for surviving the pressure. “These are, like, major companies that you’re doing these marketing campaigns for,” he said, making sure his corporate sponsors were getting their money’s worth.
Fernandez revealed that she almost didn’t respond to a DM about appearing on the show, believing it must be a scam. She wasn’t entirely wrong there, but it wasn’t a Nigerian prince trying to entice her. This was a legal, above-board scam, designed to make Jimmy Fallon the most profitable late-night host of all.
The On Brand winner has already learned from the master, using her Tonight Show appearance to audaciously promote her new job. “Now I’m the head of brand engagement at Personal Day, which is an acne-safe skincare brand co-founded by Lili Reinhart,” she said. “Who’s an actress.”
Fallon couldn’t have plugged it any better himself.
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