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Jimmy Fallon and his wife explain why they're featuring daughters on 'Tonight Show'

Fallon's wife, Nancy, said they want to let viewers know they're experiencing quarantine life just like everyone else.
/ Source: TODAY

Jimmy Fallon’s daughters have emerged as an integral part of his at-home edition of “The Tonight Show,” which he continues to shoot while quarantined to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Winnie, 6, and Franny, 5, have become familiar faces on the show, which Fallon has been hosting from his house for nearly a month, while Fallon’s wife and the girls' mom, Nancy Juvonen, operates the camera.

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Juvonen says it made sense to include their kids, if for no other reason than to show viewers that their family is just like everyone else's.

“Look, this is what we’ve got,” Juvonen told New York magazine. “The only thing we kept thinking was, if we’re not ourselves and authentic and in our sweatshirts and taking walks and being messy and doing life, then (the audience is) going to feel it, and we can’t sustain it.”

Juvonen does worry that not everyone will appreciate Winnie and Franny’s involvement.

“I’ll say to Jimmy sometimes, ‘Is it OK, or did people get mad at us yet? Is it too cutesy?’ He’s like, ‘Nope, it’s great.’ I go, ‘OK, that’s all I need to know. Let’s just elevate a little bit if we can but stick with what we’re doing.’”

Fallon and Juvonen have previously kept their private lives just that, especially when it came to the girls.

“I don’t do Instagram, I don’t do Facebook,” Juvonen said. “(Jimmy) begs once a year, ‘Can we just do (one photo with the girls)? One? People need to know I have a family.’ And I go, ‘(You can use) the skiing one where we’re all covered up.’”

The girls have effectively been uncovered on “The Tonight Show.” On a recent episode, Winnie interrupted an interview to let Fallon know she lost a tooth. Both daughters also gave an assist during one of their dad’s popular thank-you note bits, as well as pass judgment on a monologue and even serve as his band.

Fallon appears to have found the secret sauce as he continues to do his show and add some levity to a confusing time, although he remains unsure what's to come for his program.

"I don’t know if we’ll ever have an audience again,” he told New York magazine, although he does see the value in what he's doing.

“People need some type of distraction or any sign of normalcy,” he added.

That’s an attitude he has maintained, while comparing the current situation faced by Americans to the uncertainty after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

“I remember (David) Letterman saying that it’s a time right now to be courageous and he said sometimes pretending to be courageous is just as good,” he told TODAY last month. “And my wife reminded me of that quote. And so I said, ‘Yeah, we should do something. I have to do something.’”