Joe Biden To Make First Late-Night Appearance As President On ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’

Joe Biden will make his first late-night appearance as president when he guests on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday.

Fallon made the announcement on his show Thursday. A White House spokesperson said that the appearance will be virtual.

Biden’s appearance also will be the first of a sitting president on a major late-night show since 2016, when Barack Obama appeared on shows hosted Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher and Samantha Bee. Obama was the first sitting president to make an in-studio guest appearance on a late-night show when he did The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2009.

But Donald Trump avoided late-night during his term, likely because of the hosts’ fusillade of humor at his expense, even though the 45th president guested on the shows during the 2016 campaign.

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The Obama White House liked the friendlier setting of the late-night format, albeit the hosts often didn’t spend all of their time with softball questions. The Biden White House, meanwhile, has been trying to break through the traditional media din to get out the message about his accomplishments, particularly in reducing unemployment.

Landing the president is an obvious big get for any late-night show. What’s unclear is when Biden will do the shows of Fallon’s rivals, given his ties to those hosts, and where he will land for his first in-studio appearance as president. Colbert headlined a fundraiser for Biden during the 2020 campaign but also sat down with him for a memorable 2015 interview where they talked about coping with grief. Biden had lost his son, Beau, to cancer just a few months earlier. Kimmel, meanwhile, donated to Biden’s campaign.

Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attended Sunday’s Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, and Fallon was among the attendees while Lorne Michaels was among the honorees. In addition to Saturday Night Live, Michaels has an executive producer credit on The Tonight Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Fallon drew criticism in 2016 when Trump appeared on his show that September, and the host messed up the presidential candidate’s hair. Fallon took heat for going for a softer, fun-and-games interview with the candidate at a time when so much was at stake. He later said that he would have done the interview differently.

Tomorrow night is going to be a big show: President @JoeBiden is here! #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/PweFoBb4SY

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) December 9, 2021