Watch Jimmy Fallon Do A Monologue Without An Audience

As concern over the potential spread of coronavirus continues to grow, New York-based late-night shows were scheduled to begin taping without audiences as a precaution next week. Ultimately, however, the decision was made yesterday (March 12) to go ahead and scrap audiences ahead of schedule. Seth Meyers filmed a “Closer Look” segment but canceled the rest of his show after his guests pulled out, and Stephen Colbert had Dr. Sanjay Gupta on to discuss the virus, but Jimmy Fallon found himself in the unique position of having to perform a monologue to just a small group of staffers.

“This morning we planned to do a show with a full audience, but as the day progressed and the more we thought about it, we and NBC decided it would be smarter to not have an audience in order to do our part to help decrease the spread of the coronavirus,” he explained while seated at his desk. “The show’s going to be a little bit different than it normally is. Like you, I’m watching the news and I’m just as confused and freaked out as you are. I know that speech last night didn’t help. But what I do is when we’re there for each other is when we’re at our best, and I am here for you. We are here for you.”

Fallon used a significant chunk of the monologue to poke fun at Trump’s disastrous coronavirus address with lines like “Trump wanted to give a speech to reassure the nation that everything is gonna be okay, and I think it worked. Today the stock market only dropped 2,000 points.”

You can watch the audience-less monologue in its entirety below.