There have been a lot of shakeups in late night television in recent years, so, it’s good to know that someone in late night will be sticking around for a while longer. It looks like Seth Meyers will be hanging out at NBC for a bit.
NBC announced today that Seth Meyers extended his contract with the network through February 2021. This means that Late Night with Seth Meyers is expected to last at least through then. Meyers took over from Jimmy Fallon in February 2014, when Fallon left to host The Tonight Show. The franchise began with David Letterman in 1982, was handed over to Conan O’Brien in 1993, and then Jimmy Fallon in 2009.
Seth Meyers first came into late night TV when he worked at Saturday Night Live. He joined the cast in 2001, becoming writing supervisor in 2005. When head writer Tina Fey left the show, Meyers took over the role, and also became the show’s Weekend Update co-anchor with Amy Poehler. He anchored the segment solo from 2008 to 2013, and was then joined by co-anchor Cecily Strong for the 2013-2014 season.
His experience performing live every week and working with political humor has certainly paid off for Seth Meyers while hosting his late night show. He’s admitted that he always wanted the show to be politically minded, and that the show has gradually increased its focus on politics. His days on Weekend Update also show clearly in the opening moments of Late Night; while he used to stand before the audience and deliver a traditional late night talk show monologue, he soon switched to a behind-the-desk format for the opening of the show.
Seth Meyers' version of Late Night sometimes simply has a monologue followed by a series of long interviews, but, usually, there are non-interview segments that break up the celebrity interviews. Some recurring segments are A Closer Look, where Meyers explains and ridicules difficult or misunderstood political issues; Day Drinking sees Meyers take members of his family out for drinks during the morning to determine who has the best tolerance; in Deep Google he reads deeper into the pages of a Google search; and, there's also Fred Talks, a segment where Meyers and his band leader, Fred Armisen, pretend to be involved in a new project, which Armisen always turns into a service that no one actually needs.
Late Night with Seth Meyers premiered to high ratings; the show debuted with 3.4 million viewers and had a 1.4 rating among adults aged 18-49, which were the best ratings for the Late Night franchise since January 2005, which was deep into the Conan O’Brien years.
It’s no shock that Seth Meyers is interested in keeping his post at Late Night, with solid ratings and reviews that get better all the time, the show is also starting to find its creative footing. Something that we can only hope will continue to develop over the next few years.
