By India McCarty
For Jay Leno, working on THE TONIGHT SHOW was all about building a community.
“When we did THE TONIGHT SHOW, I always had the attitude that anybody could pull the cord and stop the train…and that worked well for me,” he said during an episode of “The Determined Society” podcast. “It made everybody feel they were a part of the process, you know?”
Leno explained he had seen “so many shows and businesses” where workers had the mindset of “I don’t care if I get fired, as long as that guy loses his job.”
“You go, ‘Okay, that’s not good.’ People are willing to go down to bring you down,” he joked.
Leno shared, “I did THE TONIGHT SHOW, I had the same staff for 22 years, pretty much. If people left, it’s because they wanted to…for the most part, we were pretty successful that way.”
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When he hired his initial staff, Leno explained most of them were single, which led to some “intermarrying” among the staff. By the end of THE TONIGHT SHOW’s run, 64 children had been born to the staff.
“It was a fun place to work,” Leno concluded.
When it came time to protect his employees, Leno would put his money where his mouth was. For example, in 2012, he took a 50% pay cut so that staff members wouldn’t be laid off.
“We managed to keep all our people and just spread the money around a bit,” Leno told NBC, adding, “When people felt they were confident and secure in their job, then they tend to work a little bit harder.”
Leno has also maintained a rigorous work ethic over the years, despite being one of the most successful comedians and late night hosts of all time.
“Later on, I was literally in that position where I was making a ton of dough doing THE TONIGHT SHOW, but I had it in my head that if I didn’t go out and tell jokes and earn money… it wasn’t real. It was all in the bank somewhere,” he explained to CNBC.
Leno joked, “Every time I get near [my pool], I’ll get that Boston voice in my head going: ‘Really? Is that what you are now? A rich guy that sits in a pool?’ There must be something I could be doing besides this.”
While Leno prioritizes hard work, it’s clear that for the former TONIGHT SHOW host, his relationships with his staff are the most important thing.
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