Seth Meyers has been a regular figure on NBC for more than a decade, starting with Saturday Night Live before he began hosting Late Night with Seth Meyers. While his hosting gig means that fans can find him cracking jokes and interviewing celebs with new episodes four nights a week, that generally means staying up past midnight to tune in. Well, he got a live hour of primetime this week, and took the chance to poke fun at how late his usual time slot is. And honestly, it made me wish that he appeared in primetime more often in the 2024 TV schedule.
In the wake of the first and possibly only debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in the race for President of the United States, Meyers hosted “Closer Look Primetime,” a live and extended version of the popular (and usually pre-taped) “A Closer Look” segment that airs on Late Night. While most of the jokes were about the debate that aired the previous night, the host took the chance to gently jab at his own time slot on weeknights. Meyers joked:
Welcome back to our live Closer Look Election Special. I don’t have to tell you the stakes of this debate could not have been any higher. In fact, here is how you know the stakes were high: I got bumped up from 12:30 [a.m.] to 10 [p.m.]. If you see me on your TV before you’re in your pajamas, it’s an emergency. My time slot is like the national crisis alert system. 10 p.m. means elevated, 9 p.m. means severe, and if you see me on at 8 p.m., run for your lives!
The earliest late night slot on NBC is occupied on weeknights by Jimmy Fallon with The Tonight Show airing at 11:35 p.m. ET, although the network is making a cut to Fallon’s show. Seth Meyers’ Late Night airs last, so it truly is out of the ordinary to see him live on NBC in one of the primetime hours between 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. ET. As a fan of Meyers’ usual “A Closer Look” and his interview style, I’m always happy to see the host airing a little earlier in the night, pajamas or not.
It’s also not particularly surprising to see that he can still thrive performing live on television after more than a decade on Saturday Night Live, on which he served as head writer for several years. In some ways, “A Closer Look” can even be seen as a spiritual successor to SNL‘s “Weekend Update,” now hosted by Michael Che and Colin Jost. Seth Meyers went on to comment on his early days as host of Late Night, complete with a photo of him from days gone by:
Nine years ago, I was wearing a suit, I was standing for my monologue on a set that looked like I was hosting Jeopardy on a spaceship. Look what you did to that poor boy! That poor eager boy with good posture and all the hope in the world. Now I’m so exhausted all the time I have to sit. The only way to get through the day is to start drinking at noon with Kevin Hart.
The mention of Kevin Hart is a reference to Meyers’ popular “Day Drinking” segment, in which he – as you probably can guess – goes day drinking with a celebrity guest, the most recent of which was Hart. The “Day Drinking” videos generally rack up more than a million views each when posted on YouTube for fans who aren’t actually staying up until 12:30 a.m. ET on weeknights.
The most popular consistent segment on Late Night is “A Closer Look,” however, which digs into current events and airs three times a week as part of Seth Meyers’ show. The success of the segment is undoubtedly what led to his primetime slot for “Closer Look Primetime.” Scrolling through the YouTube page for Late Night, “A Closer Look” videos often reach audiences of more than 2 million viewers. Is it any wonder that NBC would bump him earlier for this one-off live special in the wake of a presidential debate?
Considering that Late Night recently had to lose staff members due to budget cuts, I’m not going to get my hopes up for primetime specials en masse from the team behind the show that usually airs past midnight. Still, the live extended version of “A Closer Look” was a fun way to fill the 10 p.m. hour, and hopefully another special is on the way before the end of the 2024 election cycle. Meyers renewed his deal with NBCUniversal through 2028 earlier this year, and established over the summer that he has no intention of replacing Lorne Michaels at SNL.