Jimmy Fallon put The Tonight Show on pause after his mother’s death. So if you are looking for the show’s recordings for the week of November 6, 2017, you are out of luck. Gloria Fallon passed away at a Manhattan hospital on Saturday November 4, 2017.
“Today I lost my biggest fan,” Fallon said in a statement to Us Weekly on November 5.
Although he did not speak of her on his show very much, Fallon described his mother as “a total square” to a New York magazine in 2004. He went on to say that she embraced the life of “a nun for about a month” because “she wasn’t allowed to leave her stoop in Brooklyn.”
“She wasn’t allowed to leave her stoop in Brooklyn. She was a nun for about a month, but then she was like, ‘You know what? I didn’t get the calling!’ Ha! When did ‘Sound of Music’ come out? I think there was like a thing where everyone wanted to be a nun.””
Fallon returned to The Tonight Show with a heartfelt message on November 14, 2017.
“As some of you know, my mother, Gloria, passed away recently,” a very emotional Fallon said at the top of his broadcast. “She was the best audience. She was the one I was always trying to make laugh. She was such a fan of the show, and everything I did.”
As part of his return broadcast, Fallon shared stories about his mother. As a kid, his mother would hold his hand and squeeze it three times and tell him she loved him.
Fallon shared how he did the same thing at the hospital.
“Last week, I was in the hospital and I grabbed her hand and squeezed, ‘I love you,’” Fallon said with tears in his eyes.
Even though he had to cancel his show’s broadcast for a week, fans were more than understanding.
“I feel so grateful to be able to do this every single night and I am so appreciative of all the support from all of you that my family received over the past week. We’re going to continue to work really hard to bring some light and some laughter into the world. Thank you for watching,”
Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Jimmy.