Hitting 10 years as host of NBC’s Late Night, Seth Meyers has learned many lessons along the way. The biggest among them? The ability to be “as nimble as possible,” according to the late night host.
He has learned not to “marry yourself to an idea before the show actually tapes,” Meyers told The Hollywood Reporter during a special PaleyFest event Monday night. The host joined pal and the evening’s moderator Andy Samberg at the Dolby Theatre for a conversation looking back at the beginning of his Late Night journey and the highlights along the way.
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After a video introduction of the popular Late Night segment “Day Drinking With Seth,” Meyers and Samberg took the stage, jumping right into conversation. Samberg asked Meyers to look back at the beginning of the show in 2014 and the process he went through to land the gig.
Meyers told the crowd that Saturday Night Live, and later the “Weekend Update” segment of SNL, had been his dream, noting that he felt “perfectly content” after becoming the host of “Weekend Update.”
“I don’t think I had any exit strategy,” Meyers told the crowd about his plans post-SNL. Later, the pair also discussed hiring the host’s writing staff and the origin of fan-favorite segment “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell,” which features writers Amber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel. “The longer we’ve done it, the more they’ve taken control away from me,” Meyers joked. “It’s basically a coup.”
Meyers and Samberg also took a moment to discuss their new podcast — The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, which is hosted by the pair along with The Lonely Island members Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. The podcast looks back at popular SNL digital shorts throughout the years.
Samberg said that he and the other members of The Lonely Island had been discussing the idea of doing a podcast when Meyers called to ask if they’d be interested in the project. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s the thing we were already talking about, but now we can do it with you, and it’ll be more fun, and we’ll have a better in on it,’” Samberg told THR.
Meyers also noted that the podcast has been a great opportunity for the four hosts to spend time together amid their busy schedules. “The four of us would not be hanging out like this — because all we’re really doing is hanging out — and we wouldn’t have done it without the podcast,” Meyers said. “It’s been lovely.”
