Seth Meyers Discusses “Constantly Shifting Sands” Over 10 Years of ‘Late Night’

When Seth Meyers inaugurated his version of Late Night in 2014, the guests on his first show were Amy Poehler and then Vice President Joe Biden.

Meyers will celebrate 10 years of as host of Late Night on Monday, when his guests will be … Amy Poehler and Joe Biden. NBC confirmed Monday afternoon that the president would make a “surprise appearance” on the show (as first reported by the New York Post).

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“The more comfortable you are, the better the show is. On camera, I’m most comfortable with Amy,” Meyers told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the anniversary show (Late Night With Seth Meyers premiered on Feb. 24, 2014). “The longer I do the show, I feel like I can have that comfort I’ve had with her with everybody else. You just start trusting your ability to be your natural self on camera. I think she’s gone from a crutch [for me] to just a good guest.”

In a clip released ahead of Monday’s show, Poehler and Meyers joke about him not being able to book the president, to which she replies, “Oh — I could get him.” Biden then walks out for a chat, jokingly asking why Meyers hadn’t asked him back sooner (watch it below):

Meyers spoke with The Hollywood Reporter (before news of Biden’s possible appearance broke) about the state of Late Night (and late night, more broadly) and his debt to Jon Stewart. He also said he wouldn’t bet on Lorne Michaels’ rumored retirement from Saturday Night Live being on the near horizon.

When did you have a sense that you might be able to do this, and do it well, for a decently long time?

About a year and a half in is when the show started to set in a way that I enjoyed. It is very funny how much was written about my choice to just start the show at the desk back then. But it was just, “Oh, maybe this is the way we’ll do ours,” and build off the fact that I was a “Weekend Update” anchor for a long time and know how to do this thing from the desk. It was a weird thing — it literally felt more stable when I sat down. I was like, “Ah, good, now we don’t have to count on my weak knees.”

What do you make of the late-night landscape now? Other than After Midnight at CBS, every network show has had the same host for several years. Do you think that stability is going to remain, or do you think things will be changing more in the next few years?

There have certainly been constantly shifting sands in the 10 years we’ve done the show, I think there were about the number [of late-night shows] there are now when I started. And then there was a huge boom, where it seemed like every streamer and every channel was going to have their own late-night talk show. Now we’ve sort of reverted to kind of what it was in 2014. It’s weird to try to predict the future since the past ended up being the future. I don’t quite know what to say about it, other than the best way to do these shows, of course, is just to focus on the show you’re doing try not to predict where the future of the form is going to be.

I was especially disappointed that Amber Ruffin’s show got shut down.

I know. I really, really appreciated the vision to do her show. It was great. And I have a lot of respect for Peacock for trying. But yes, I shared your disappointment [Ed. note: Meyers was an executive producer of The Amber Ruffin Show], and I hope that it will return in some form.

I remember watching her first few shows during the height of the pandemic and thinking that when she gets to have an audience, it’s really going to go up a couple of levels.

Look, I host [Late Night], and when she comes out, the audience claps louder than they do for me. They obviously like her. And it was that level of difficulty, the fact that she launched a show without an audience, when the most important time to have an audience is when your show starts. Because then you get to set levels and find out what’s working and what’s not. [Late Night] going away from an audience during the pandemic actually allowed some creative renaissance, but we had the benefit of, at that point, six years of audiences before we got there.

What do you think is the toughest thing for you to joke about right now, in terms of current events or the state of the world?

To put in very simple terms, It’s the difference between something that’s scary and something that’s tragic. I think we can joke about things that are scary, but when it’s tragic, that is when it’s the hardest.

Have you watched any of Jon Stewart’s first couple of Daily Shows since he returned?

I watched the first one. It was really good to have him back.

Would you consider him an influence on you?

Absolutely. I don’t think a show like ours exists had he not done what he did with The Daily Show. There was a previous version of what late-night talk shows are, and I would have been a lot worse at one of those that I am at one of these. So we definitely consider ourselves in his debt.

I wouldn’t think “A Closer Look” would exist without that, or something like Last Week Tonight, which is a direct descendant.

Yeah, of course. I think a lot of the shows that come off the Daily Show tree are people that got to work with Jon, and it’s nice for us to have been able to figure out [our show] just from being lucky enough to watch it.

Other than “A Closer Look,” do you have a favorite recurring segment on the show?

My favorite recurring thing other than “A Closer Look” is “Corrections,” which isn’t even on the show. I think that, again, speaks to my ambition in managing to do things that aren’t even monetized. ”Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” is a really special thing. Anytime you have something on your show that is born out of the uniqueness of your staff, it feels good. “Surprise Inspection,” which is the brainchild of our head writer, Alex Baze, which is just reading the worst jokes our writers turned in over the course of a month, is a lot of fun. I think our audience and the people who watch the show every day know that I love our writing staff, and because they know I like them, it gives me the freedom to just lay into their bad choices.

There has been a ton of speculation that Lorne Michaels might retire or step away after the 50th anniversary of SNL. You and Tina Fey seem to be the people that everyone thinks would be best suited to take over the show. I’m curious if you have any thoughts about it, or whether you’d even want to do that job?

I wish FanDuel had odds for “Will Lorne Michaels be in charge on the 55th.” I would bet the house that Lorne will still be running that place in five years. That is the most appropriate outcome that makes the most sense to me. I should say it is incredibly flattering every time I hear somebody say that about me. It makes it even more flattering when people mention Tina’s name. It’s nice for people to speculate about it, but I don’t think it’s going to go down the way people think it is.

There was a time in years past that the 12:35 show was seen as kind of a stepping stone, where NBC would have sort of an extended audition for the next Tonight Show host …

You’re just saying that because every other person who did the 12:30 show ended up doing 11:30 (Laughs.) No basis in fact.

But is it still? I mean, do you have any kind of feeling about that or are you comfortable just doing your show your way?

I mean this with all genuineness — I love the show we’re doing, and I love the space the network has given us to do it. They do pay less attention to a 12:30 show than an 11:30 show. It’s been a boon for us, and they seem happy, and we’re happy. So it’s not a bad deal at all. And I had no ambitions to do a 12:30 show when I was at SNL. I just continue to get these things due to a stunning lack of ambition. And I’m gonna maintain that lack of ambition and just see where it takes me [laughs].

Can you talk a little bit about how the Strike Force Five podcast came together and what you took away from that?

Credit to Jimmy Kimmel, who is — we’re all hosts, but I feel that Jimmy is the kind of host that throws an actual party, as opposed to just having guests on a talk show. He’s just really good at bringing people together. He had the idea, and he did a lot of the legwork before he even reached out to the other four of us. The other great thing is one, we did it for a reason, and that was to financially support people affected by the strike, and it was incredibly successful that way. But it was so good to just get to know them all as people. It took a few episodes before we had the comfort to do what five funny people would do, which is make fun of each other. And I think once we sort of had the safety of, these are good people, and once everybody knows you like each other, then you can have the fun of just busting chops.

It seems like that was something that couldn’t have happened in a previous era, because there were these perceived rivalries, or in some cases actual rivalries. But it does genuinely seem like the cohort you’re in now Is pretty friendly.

I think we as a generation might appreciate how lucky we are to have any show, whereas maybe the previous generation — it was [just] The Tonight Show. We realize, oh, no, it’s the luxury of having that hour to do your thing is pretty special.

Do you have any special plans for the show on Monday?

We’re kind of a low-key operation, so I don’t think we’re gonna blow the doors off the place. The other funny thing about this, when you have a talk show and you do a 10-year anniversary, is that you also then have a show on Tuesday. You immediately have to start thinking about your 11th year, and that’s one of my favorite things about it.

Interview edited and condensed.

Feb. 26, 1:50 p.m. Updated with confirmation of Joe Biden’s appearance on Late Night Monday.

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