Jimmy Fallon is back with four new episodes of The Tonight Show this week, with a guest list that runs from Billy Crystal and Jamie Lee Curtis to LL Cool J and Mel Robbins. The week of 26 October 2026 also follows a run of monologue moments that have drawn laughs, groans, and plenty of online debate. This article rounds up the latest Jimmy Fallon news: who is on the show this week, and what Fallon has been joking about in October.
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This week on The Tonight Show: 26 to 29 October
According to listings reported for the week of 26 October, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon continues with four new episodes, Monday to Thursday, at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC, with full episodes available to stream on Peacock. The guest line-up reported for the week is:
- Monday: Billy Crystal, Joe Keery, and St. Vincent.
- Tuesday: Parker Posey, Nicholas Galitzine, and Dominic Fike.
- Wednesday: Jamie Lee Curtis and Jamie Campbell Bower.
- Thursday: LL Cool J, Mel Robbins, Veronika Slowikowska, and magician Shin Lim.
The Thursday show is a good example of the mix Fallon aims for. LL Cool J returns to talk about NCIS: New York, the new spin-off in the CBS franchise that premiered on 6 October with LL Cool J back as Special Agent Sam Hanna, alongside Scott Caan. Mel Robbins, whose book The Let Them Theory was the bestselling non-fiction book of 2025, returns after announcing her 2026 tour on the show earlier in the year. Slowikowska, a featured player on Saturday Night Live, is making her late-night talk-show debut, and Shin Lim brings his close-up magic to the studio.
Password with Billy Crystal, Joe Keery, and St. Vincent
Monday’s show opened the week with a game of Password, the classic word-guessing format that has become a regular Tonight Show feature. Fallon teamed up with Billy Crystal to take on Joe Keery and St. Vincent, with each pair trying to guess target words from single-word clues given by their partner. The segment, reported on 27 October, paired Crystal’s long screen career with Keery’s acting work and St. Vincent’s music background in a single competitive game, and it set the tone for a week built around guests from film, television, and music.
Games like Password, along with the show’s musical performances and comedy sketches, are central to Fallon’s version of late night. Where other hosts lean heavily on interviews, Fallon has built his show around participation: guests play, sing, and improvise, and the audience gets to see a different side of people they usually only see in character.
Fallon’s October monologues
Fallon’s monologues this month have leaned into the midterm elections and the news coming out of Washington. On 6 October, he performed a spoof advertisement for a fictional ballot-counting machine, joking about worries over how votes would be counted and about the White House’s stance on election observers. The sketch was reported as a pointed piece of political comedy, and it drew a strong reaction from the studio audience.
On 21 October, Fallon’s monologue took up the reported departure of a White House press secretary after a very short time in the job. He joked about the pace of staff changes and the election countdown, and one line about the First Lady drew audible gasps as well as laughs from the crowd. Reports of the moment described a mixed reaction in the room, with laughter and groans in equal measure, and the clip was widely shared online. As with much late-night comedy in an election season, the same jokes were praised by some viewers as sharp and criticised by others as going too far.
Whatever viewers make of individual jokes, the monologues show Fallon doing what late-night hosts have always done: turning the day’s headlines into comedy on the night, while the news is still fresh. In a week when the midterms are days away, that material is likely to stay at the top of the show.
Guests who made news last week
The previous week also brought notable Tonight Show moments. On 22 October, Queens of the Stone Age performed on the show, with frontman Josh Homme wearing a red jacket and white T-shirt in a nod to David Bowie’s own Tonight Show appearance in 1980. The band performed “Where the Goth Girls At?” ahead of their album Perfecth, released on 30 October, and announced a North American tour with Pixies for the following spring.
That blend, a rock performance with a knowing visual tribute, a comedy game, and a serious author interview, is the shape of Fallon’s show in 2026. It is a variety show as much as a talk show, and its guest bookings reflect that.
How to watch
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET / 10:35 p.m. CT on NBC, with full episodes streaming on Peacock. Clips from the show, including games and musical performances, are also published on the show’s official channels. This week’s guests, from Billy Crystal to Shin Lim, suggest four nights of the usual Fallon mix: conversation, games, music, and monologue comedy shaped by the news of the week.