Jennette McCurdy may be a guest on NBC’s The Tonight Show this week, but her first time on one of Jimmy Fallon’s late-night shows came well over a decade ago—in a fictional universe.
Fallon and McCurdy first crossed paths in an episode of McCurdy’s Nickelodeon series iCarly, which saw the cast of that sitcom visit NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Fallon was several years into his run on Late Night at that point, and just six months away from the announcement that he’d be moving up to The Tonight Show.
On iCarly, McCurdy played Sam Puckett, friend of series lead Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove). In the sitcom, the pair co-hosted a live web series—also called iCarly—with the help of friend and producer Freddie Benson (Nathan Dress).
iCarly and Late Night crossed over on October 6, 2012, in the Season 6 episode “iShock America”—a special two-parter that kicked off the sitcom’s final run of episodes.
In the episode, the iCarly gang is surprised to hear Fallon shout them out during a “Thank You Notes” segment, prompting the group to devote an episode of their web series to Fallon/Late Night. Their friend Gibby (Noah Munck) even sits in on drums, sporting a Questlove-inspired afro.
When Fallon and Steve Higgins see the homage, they invite the iCarly team to actually appear on Late Night—but their star-making moment turns to national scandal during one of Fallon’s classic on-air games. During an installment of the recurring game “Dance Your Hat and Gloves Off,” Gibby inadvertently lets his pants fall down live on-air.
In reality, Late Night is pre-taped, as is the standard with all of the late-night shows. In the world of iCarly, however, the show was beamed out live—and with Gibby having decided to not wear any underwear, the wardrobe malfunction puts Late Night on the hook for indecent exposure.
A fictional stand-in for the FCC, dubbed the NCC, fines them $500,000. While the iCarly team takes responsibility and is stuck with the bill, Fallon comes to the rescue by crowdfunding the fine, re-inviting the gang back to Late Night to present them with the money.
McCurdy would go on to star in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat, with Ariana Grande, from 2013-2014. In 2015, she would finally chat with Fallon as herself when she guested on The Tonight Show.
Since then, she has become a New York Times-bestselling author with her 2022 memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died, in which she tackles the hardships she went through during her time on that show.
McCurdy is set to visit The Tonight Show Tuesday, January 20, to promote her debut novel, Half His Age.
