The studio audience for Friday night’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon got (a lot) more than they bargained for when they signed up for free tickets to the show.
In his debut Tonight Show appearance, YouTube superstar MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) teamed with snack company Jack Link’s to give $1,000 to every audience member in Studio 6B.
The windfall came as the climax of a game of “Box of Lies,” a recurring Tonight Show segment in which Jimmy Fallon and his guests attempt to deceive each other about the contents of mysterious containers. Fallon challenged Donaldson to the game, with the audience receiving a prize each time either player correctly guessed whether the other was telling the truth.
The first two rounds produced relatively modest rewards: a pint of Ben & Jerry’s “Tonight Dough” ice cream and a month’s supply of Feastables. But in the third round, the stakes rose dramatically when MrBeast announced that a correct guess would net every audience member $1,000.
It was, of course, very on-brand for Donaldson, whose massively popular YouTube videos routinely feature six- and seven-figure prizes, luxury cars, and even private islands.
Anyone concerned that Jimmy Fallon wouldn’t believe the YouTuber after he claimed that round three’s huge box contained the Tonight Show host’s pal Drew Barrymore skiing alongside the Jack Link’s Sasquatch needn’t have worried. Fallon correctly guessed that it was the truth, prompting a rapturous response from the crowd.
All told, Fallon’s audience walked away with nearly $250,000. While that doesn’t surpass the benchmark set by Oprah Winfrey in 2004—when her studio audience famously received 276 Pontiac G6 sedans valued at roughly $7.6 million—it does appear to rank as late-night TV’s largest-ever cash giveaway.
The stunt aired as part of a rare new Friday night episode of The Tonight Show following NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. The show now heads into a two-week hiatus—save for a pre-taped installment of Fallon’s “Puppy Predictors,” which is airing as part of NBC’s Super Bowl pregame coverage this Sunday.
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