Seth Meyers on ‘Late Night’ in Trump 2.0 and the Medium’s Future: ‘It’s Hopefully Cathartic to Watch, Definitely Cathartic to Do’

When Seth Meyers first stepped into “Late Night” a little over a decade ago, the Obama era was winding down and Donald Trump would soon enter the White House. The former “SNL” head writer and Weekend Update anchor leaned into the political and filled a void on late night TV that resulted in viral segments that aimed to not just take down political figures, but speak directly to the viewer as if to say, “It’s not just you. We think this is crazy too.”

Now, 10 years later, Trump is back in the White House, but Meyers and his team are still finding comedy in the absurd and, as Meyers describes it, depressing state of the world, all amidst a radically changing TV industry.

“We had to shift from sort of this fist-shaking, ‘This isn’t who we are!’ to finding comedy in the fact that this is who we are, and we have to figure out how to be something else,” Meyers told TheWrap of how “Late Night” approached Trump’s victory in November. The show has continued its political edge through recurring segment A Closer Look, which takes a, well, closer look at one major news item of the day three days a week. But even inside A Closer Look, Meyers and his team find time for the kind of absurdist tangents that have made “Late Night” stand out from its competitors.

“We just give ourselves so much room to gently move away from the story and find things that delight only us. And there’s this balance, which is, I don’t think what’s happening in the world right now is only absurd. I feel like there’s obviously grave consequences to what’s going on. That said, embracing the absurdity for our little piece of this is something we’re going to continue to do,” he said.

But Meyers and his team also aren’t oblivious to the shifting TV landscape, as linear struggles continue under the industry’s shift to streaming. “Late Night” in particular gets huge social reach and A Closer Look segments regularly top over 1 million views on YouTube, and to Meyers as long as people are paying attention, he and his team are doing their jobs well.

“I don’t feel as though ‘Late Night’ is a quieter voice than it was 10 years ago. I think, ultimately, there are challenges to make it as valuable a property,” he acknowledged. “But we’re not doing our show and thinking we’re just yelling into a void, we feel very heard, and I would prefer that to anything. The most depressing thing would be if you feel like you’re doing the show and nobody’s paying attention.”

Below, during a chat in his office backstage after I sat through a taping of “Late Night” at 30 Rock, Meyers gets into how the show has been tackling Trump 2.0, the joy of performing A Closer Look and how he juggles hosting a late night series, two podcasts and stand-up (His HBO stand-up special “Dad Man Walking” premiered in October) all while parenting three young kids.

How are you feeling about “Late Night?”

We still love doing this show. I mean, there was that real, “Oh my God, what’s this gonna be for a second Trump administration?” but I do think we’ve figured out tone in a way that we’re happy with. We had to shift from sort of this fist-shaking, “This isn’t who we are!” to finding comedy in the fact that this is who we are, and we have to figure out how to be something else. But the hour of performing the show every day is still the best part of it, and you just have that nice comfort in knowing there are people that agree with you about how insane it all is. When this happened a second time, the hardest part was realizing, “Oh, there were a lot more people who were OK with this than I thought.”

Take me back to November. In hindsight, has it been more or less challenging than you thought it’d be to cover a second Trump administration?

It’s still challenging. It’s less depressing than I thought. The world is more depressing than I thought, but then being here amongst this staff and realizing what our job is makes you feel purposeful, and that ultimately brings you some relief. I always say if it wasn’t for having the show I would just be doom-scrolling, I’d have no release valve. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it forever: It’s hopefully cathartic to watch, definitely cathartic to do. I think especially because you realize we now are in an age where you truly value the freedom to say what you want to say on platforms like these, and not that we ever took it for granted, but when you take the wide shot of this, you realize, “Oh, this is still, as of today, an incredibly special thing about this country, that you have the freedom to do a show like this.”

What I think people appreciate, too, is you’re not afraid to speak out. When the White House Correspondents Association pulled Amber from the dinner, you said something on air. Did you question whether to do it?

No, and obviously our first call was to Amber to say, “How would you like to address this? You have a home here to do whatever you want to do.” Again, it is an incredible privilege to have a show like this, and you try to share what that privilege provides you with as many voices as you can.

You mentioned A Closer Look, where you’re taking a deep dive into one big topic, usually relating to Trump. Are those still fun to do?

Oh yeah. We just give ourselves so much room to gently move away from the story and find things that delight only us. And there’s this balance, which is, I don’t think what’s happening in the world right now is only absurd. I feel like there’s obviously grave consequences to what’s going on. That said, embracing the absurdity for our little piece of this is something we’re going to continue to do, and hopefully the people who watch our show don’t see it as we’re diminishing in any way, shape or form what the incredibly dire repercussions of what’s happening right now are.

You did a special live episode of A Closer Look last fall. What was that like?

It was thrilling. It’s been so long since I’ve done anything live, and I flub on the show all the time, and I never really flubbed on “SNL” in all my years at Weekend Update. There is that thing when you have “live brain,” when you know it’s live, your ability to just click it up a gear and just dial in. It was really exciting to, one, feel as though we were saying everything we wanted to say and two, know that every commercial break, [A Closer Look head writer/producer] Sal [Gentile] and [A Closer Look supervising producer] Emily [Erotas] were scrambling to figure out how to fit it in, because I think we went into the show thinking we’re three minutes short, and by the end of the first act, we’re three minutes long.

These episodes of A Closer Look get huge views on YouTube, like over a million for each installment. Are you thinking about the distribution system for those when you’re crafting them?

We’re very fortunate. We’re going to make it the way we want to make it — and again, we never thought, “Oh, we’ll do A Closer Look and that’ll be a big YouTube thing.” The fact that it’s turned out to be that way, obviously, is wonderful, because it’s where we put our biggest efforts day in and day out. But we’re not savvy enough to know how to aim for distribution, and we have more kind of fallen ass backwards into having a viral hit. 

The methods of viewing are also changing rapidly – a segment like A Closer Look feels tailor-made for the social media and YouTube environment.

Totally. And it’s nice too, within the body of A Closer Look, you can always pull out a three-minute point. Sal writes with this real clarity. I always said he writes it like a term paper: here’s my argument, I’m gonna back it up, and here’s my conclusion. So you can pull out arguments and it does have a nice digestibility that way. 

I also wanted to ask about your performance on A Closer Look. I watched you tonight while the clips were playing, you were preparing what the cut back to you would look like.

It’s really funny, we used to do the show at 6:30 and when we taped at 6:30, we would do a dry run on A Closer Look in front of an audience. Now, because we do the show at 4, one would say one of the negatives is I don’t get to run A Closer Look. We have all decided it’s a massive positive, because I have almost with 100% consistency not seen the clip. So the first time I’m seeing the clip is when I’m performing for A Closer Look, which makes it feel more like an improv show. I’ve read the transcript when I’m working on the script, but it’s so fun to oftentimes be able to, in the moment, go, “Oh, I think I can get a laugh on putting a thing before I go back to the script.”

I feel like you’re also thinking about the joke on the cut, like what is your reaction going to be after the clip plays.

It’s great too because Sal knows what I’m doing. If, coming out of the clip the script is, “First of all,” here’s a joke, “Second of all,” here’s the second joke. If I say “First of all,” and the first part doesn’t get a laugh, I don’t say “Second of all,” because I’m like, “Oh, we’ll cut that first part and I’ll literally just pick it up without ‘Second of all’ and have another crack at getting a laugh out of the clip. We have found this really nice synergy in how it’s a very tight circle that works on A Closer Look. It’s ultimately Emily and Sal and the editors.

It’s been an interesting year for you – you guys lost your band and there have been some budget cuts. How has that impacted the show?

The least fun part of it was just that human connection with the band as people and friends, and having to break that news to them was awful. With that said, it really speaks to the value of being honest with people over the course of 10 years of working with them, that when we told them the reality of why it was happening, none of them thought they were getting a raw deal. They just knew that this was the reality of the landscape right now. I’m happy to say that all of them are thriving and are going to continue to do great things. But mostly I just have a really big amount of gratitude for what it’s like to have your own band.

The landscape is rough everywhere, not just in late night, but CBS scrapped “After Midnight” and isn’t filling that slot with another late night show, Fallon is down to four nights a week. How are you feeling about the future of late night?

We’re very clear eyed about the world we’re living in. We also see these canaries in the coal mine. It was really sad to see “After Midnight” go because it was so cool that they gave it to somebody like Taylor [Tomlinson], who’s an incredible voice and there were three new comedians every day on that show, which is so important as well. So it’s sad to see those things go away. But the only thing you can do when you have a show like this is keep doing a show like this, and we don’t take it personally, because it is industry wide. So ultimately, you think to yourselves, “Let’s do the best work we can.” Hopefully it survives on these other platforms in a way that can make it worth it to the network to keep us around.

Are you thinking about post-2028?

Is it too late to run for president? [Laughs] But honestly, it’s funny, when I got into comedy, I definitely thought people my age were like, “Well, I certainly don’t want to keep doing it.” And then the reality is it’s the best job in the world. You want to do it as long as you can, and I just can’t imagine any other gig being more fun than the immediacy of putting on a show every day. I know there are other things that people do in this industry that bring them a lot of joy, but to come from “SNL,” where you’re doing one show a week, to here where you’re doing four shows a week, that’s what I like. I don’t like getting caught up in the process of notes and feedback. I’m gonna do it as long as I can.

But you guys are still driving cultural conversation, even though the landscape has changed.

It’s not frustrating because I understand there’s ultimately not much anyone can do about it, but I don’t feel as though late night is a quieter voice than it was 10 years ago. I think, ultimately, there are challenges to make it as valuable a property. But we’re not doing our show and thinking we’re just yelling into a void, we feel very heard, and I would prefer that to anything. The most depressing thing would be if you feel like you’re doing the show and nobody’s paying attention. But again, the amount of friends of mine who get the show because they see it on other platforms, I know this is one of the problems that any network is up against, which is they’re making this content and people are finding it other places. But I do remain sort of bullish on the idea that smart people here are gonna figure out solutions.

Let’s talk about your juggling act. You have “Late Night,” two podcasts, you did a stand-up special for HBO this year. Are you exhausted?

I’m pretty tapped out (laughs)

Here’s the key question: How much does your wife get frustrated by how busy you are?

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say I’ve been crushing it by keeping it from her exactly how f–king tapped out I am (laughs). I’m still a very active father, and I’m really proud of myself. I think this is a credit both to Lorne Michaels and how much value Alexei has added to the whole Seth Meyers industrial complex, but she did get to come to the 50th and Lorne is big fan of hers, and vice versa. So hopefully every now and then I can provide her some plus one action where she can forgive me for my many hours away.

It does seem like you juggle quite well. You are a very present father.

I feel really good about that. I mean, I think part of being a present father is then that is ultimately what my stand up is gonna be about (Laughs). Sometimes I’m like god damn it Bill Burr, I feel like he reads every article in the world. I’m always blown away with his ability to be like, “This is what I think about this” and the only thing I notice is what my kids are doing. But I love everything I do. I definitely, at times, am a little worried about hitting a breaking point of just not having hours in the day. But I’m never doing the Lonely Island podcast and wishing I’m somewhere else. I’ve never doing the podcast with my brother and wishing I was talking to anyone else in the world. Same thing with this show, same thing with doing stand up John Oliver. When I’m doing those things, I feel creatively rewarded with the use of my time.

Even when Jorm is showing up late to the podcast.

Look, let me say this about Jorm: Truly one of the funniest people I know, but also maybe Top 5 human beings. So I will allow him to be a little late.

A version of this story first ran in the Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

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