Seth Meyers had just finished his first week back on-air after a three-week break for the Olympics when we connected by phone. There’d been major news in the presidential campaign while the “Late Night With Seth Meyers” host had been off-air and unable to talk about it.
“It’s always hard to be off for three weeks because we love what we do,” says Meyers. “The first week of our break — where it was post-debate and everybody was spinning out — that was really hard; whereas the last two weeks felt like the sun was breaking through the clouds a little bit.”
Then he adds in a mock-serious tone, “By the way, I really hope I’m not revealing my politics in this interview.”
Meyers says that doing the show this election cycle feels different for reasons beyond simply a shakeup among the candidates. “This week has been so wonderful to do the show and feel as though there’s just a little bit of hope in the air. Because in 2020, that whole election cycle, we didn’t have an audience; it was COVID. We were doing the show for an empty studio. So this is a very new feeling, and I’ve got to be honest, it’s not one I hate.
“I know anything can change, but also, because I know anything can change, I’ve given myself permission to enjoy the present,” says Meyers, who is also set to do a live “Closer Look Primetime” special on Sept. 11 following the presidential debates.
US President Joe Biden speaks with host Seth Meyers as they enjoy an ice cream at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream after taping an episode of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in New York City on February 26, 2024. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
And the writer, comedian and TV host does have plenty to enjoy. His late-night show and related YouTube series were nominated for three Emmys — Outstanding Talk Series, Outstanding Music Direction and Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series. He’s got successful podcasts, an HBO stand-up special coming in October and thoughts about the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” and the chatter around who, if anyone, should replace “SNL” honcho Lorne Michaels should he decide to retire.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Congratulations on the Emmy nominations. What’s it like being recognized for your work?
It’s embarrassing how satisfying it is because I know you’re not supposed to care about these things. But it’s just so lovely, especially when the show gets nominated because that covers so many people who I just love working with. And it’s very nice to be recognized by your peers; I’m not going to pretend it isn’t. It hasn’t happened for us so many times that we are immune to the satisfaction.
It was the first time [the nominations] happened when we were actually in production, and to find out by hearing a bunch of people cheer — for a guy who liked sports and wasn’t good at sports — I felt like this might be the closest I come to feeling the taste of victory.
Q: In your category, you’re nominated with your friends and “Strike Force Five” podcast co-hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, which must be nice and a little weird.
It’s not weird. One of the many upsides of “Strike Force Five” [a limited-series podcast that raised money for out-of-work staffers during the WGA strike] was going from colleagues to friends with everybody who’s in our category. They were colleagues I respected a great deal, but we all genuinely like each other. It’s almost, sadly, like you need a Writers’ Strike to give you time to make friends.
There’s nothing more edifying than the moment where you realize you’re not, you know, on an island by yourself, that everybody has had the same things go wrong – and the same things go right. Although it’s more fun, I will say, to talk about the things that go wrong.
Q: Are you all glad that perennial category winner John Oliver is no longer in your category [Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” is now in a category called Scripted Variety Series along with “Saturday Night Live”]?
We’re thrilled. [laughs] I should say Lorne calls me all the time like, ‘You should get him back in [your category].
Q: One of the “Late Night With Seth Meyers” nominations is for musical direction. The 8G band is no longer going to be part of the show on-air anymore. That must be bittersweet.
We have one more week with the 8G band, and we’ll have Fred [Armisen] back next week, which will be very bittersweet. Somebody like me never expected that they would have the luxury of a band that would play them in and out of commercial breaks for a decade.
First of all, I have such appreciation to Emmy voters for nominating Eli [Janney] and Fred for the work they do. And Syd [Butler] and Seth [Jabour], our other two band members, that’s a nomination for them as well. And yeah, I don’t want only to be sad about it, which I am, but I also really want to be grateful for the fact that I was with that incredible group of musicians for 10 years.
Q: In decades past, it seemed like everyone could watch “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, but it seems unlikely that a lot of J.D. Vance supporters watch your show. Do you think the culture changed or did late night?
I think post-Jon Stewart, who I really do give credit for this, everybody was allowed to be their authentic self in a way that maybe they hadn’t before. And that’s a lot more interesting way to make television, for my money.
Q: We were talking earlier about football and you made the point that in the ‘70s there were probably more Pittsburgh Steelers fans and Dallas Cowboys fans because those two teams were so often on TV.
That’s the same reason Johnny Carson didn’t have to do politics. There was an era where we all grew up and we had, like, no choices. You know what I mean? One of the reasons you could do television differently in the ‘70s was because nobody could go anywhere else.
Q: Let me ask about Day Drinking, the segment where you drink with celebrities like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Rihanna and Kristen Stewart: Are you trying to kill yourself?
Guests are trying to kill me because it’s a real hot segment and everybody wants a piece of me. [laughs] It’s hard to say no. I do love doing it.
Q: Waking up with a new tattoo after drinking is usually a sign you’ve had too much to drink. [Meyers and Dua Lipa got tiny matching tattoos].
It is so funny how many times this summer someone has said, “I think you have a tick.”And I say, “No, that’s a tattoo I got with Dua Lipa.” I’m like, You got a tick, bro. I got a memory.
I have a writer’s blood and so I panic during a normal remote segment when it’s out of my hands and I’m not in control of how it’s all going to cut together. And so the only way for me to relax is to just get immediately hammered. That’s why those terrible mixed drinks off the top, albeit the worst concoctions, serve an important purpose. The part of me that’s like, “This isn’t a good idea,” that part goes to bed first.
Q: Your YouTube-only show, “Corrections,” also got a nomination. How do you describe it to people who haven’t seen it?
“It’s too late; you missed the boat,” is what I would say to them. [laughs] “Corrections” was born out of the vibe we had during COVID when we were doing a show without an audience. Because there was no audience, I will admit that my ego forced me to read YouTube comments just to prove to myself that people were watching the show and I noticed how many sort of pedantic, small corrections people were making in the YouTube comments.
I just decided it would be fun once we got the audience back to clear the audience out and do a weekly address to the jackals, as I call them who have wasted my and their time correcting the show. It has become, without exception, my favorite part of my job.
One of my oldest friends, Pete Grosz, is a writer for our show and a really talented writer and actor. He said the nicest thing about “Corrections.” He’s like, “It only took you 20 years in television to figure out the way to get your true self on there.” Because it is, I think, that that is maybe the most like me of anything I do.
It’s become a stand-up set about our show delivered to our group. It’s not a good use of my time, but I really do love it.
Q: Speaking of standup, do you have a new special in the works?
I have one in the can that will be coming out in October on HBO and so now I’m going to take a little bit of a break. Because sometimes my wife points out that I do comedy all week, and maybe it’s not healthy to do it all weekend. Sometimes she’ll even point at our three children, and that’s helpful.
Q: You have two current podcasts, one with your brother Josh, “Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers,” and an “SNL”-focused one with Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, “Lonely Island with Seth Meyers.” Did you look at lucrative podcasts like “Smartless” and “Armchair Expert,” and think, Hey, maybe I should get in on this?
One thing about the ones you mentioned, they’re so good at that sort of career-spanning interview, and they do it so well that I didn’t want to try to do something that was just my version of that. Ultimately, I also wanted to use it to hang out with people I love that I don’t hang out with enough. My brother and I, you know, we couldn’t be closer, but we’re on opposite coasts … so it’s been really amazing just getting to hang with him. And I feel the same way about those Lonely Island guys. I mean, it’s probably the most important decade of my life, that 10 years that we were all at [“SNL”] together. And so 1), I love revisiting it, and 2), they’re my favorite people to revisit it with.
Somebody said a really cool thing to me, which is, “I’ve read all the [‘SNL’] books and watched all the documentaries, but I feel as though it’s a whole different dimension to what it’s like to work there [by listening to the Lonely Island podcast],” and that wasn’t our goal. I did think it would be more of a recap of the shorts, but I’m happy that maybe the most memorable part of it is that we all felt this intense anxiety that brought us really close together as friends. And ultimately, when you’re listening to a podcast, you like hearing friends and family. It is a weirdly, I don’t know, intimate thing to spend time with podcasts, and so I’m glad people are digging them.
We’re all different people based on who we’re with, and with Josh especially, I’m the [screw-up], whereas with the Lonely Island, I’m the adult. I just love the fact that it doesn’t feel like I’m working the same muscle in each one.
We all contain multitudes, and I want my multitudes to be monetized.
Q: “SNL” is turning 50 in this new season. Will you, as a former cast member and head writer, be involved with the show’s anniversary season?
I had a fair amount of involvement in the 40th but I had just left and so I felt very connected in a way that I don’t feel now, but in a healthy way. I’m certainly available for anything Lorne would want me to do, but I am not committed to do anything. For me, it’s just so surreal that it’s a full decade after the 40th, which feels like yesterday to me.
Q. I’ve heard your era on”SNL,” which included cast members like Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis, referred to — by you — as “an golden era.”
Yeah, there was ‘an golden era,’ and I’m glad a lot of people are coming around to it. I’m seeing a lot of TikTok videos supporting my case.
Look, take me out of it; don’t even make this about praise for me: You look at the work that group did and I’ll tell you this, and I mean it: The easiest time in the history of the show to be head writer was when I was head writer. I’m not saying it’s an easy job. I just know for a fact that it’s never easier than the cast I got to do it with and the writing staff I got to do it with.
Q: It must be asked: Are you planning to take over for Lorne Michaels should he decide he doesn’t want to do it anymore?
Plotting, I wouldn’t say “planning.” I prefer the verb “plotting.” [laughs] No, I mean, again, I appreciate that the question needs to be asked. I really can’t stress my answer enough, which I will give until the end of days: He is irreplaceable.
He is so deeply tied to the DNA of what that show is that the very idea of a person sort of stepping into those shoes — I’m not saying someone can’t do it, but it’s beyond my comprehension to know who that person is.
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