NBC’s “Late Night” host Seth Meyers recently spoke with Deadline about returning to the studios following months away and doing the program from home as the late-night hosts begin recording from their studio with in-person guests, some with a live audience.
“The novelty hasn’t worn off; it’s so nice to be back in the studio, having done the show out of the studio that every day you are acutely aware of how much harder the job could be without being surrounded by this really talented staff. Tonight was only our third or fourth show where both guests were in the studio, and that’s great,” Meyers said.
“Really, I still feel as though, and sadly the more you do it, the better you get at doing a Zoom interview; that was a lot harder a year ago, but nothing got easy about doing the tech myself and not having to worry about that and being able to focus on writing and performance, is such a gift.”
The media outlet then discussed with Meyers having in-person guests. Then asked the difference between talking to someone face-to-face instead of having the interview on Zoom.
“The upside to Zoom is that the guest is talking to the audience, they’re looking into the camera, and the downside is you still can’t quite tell when you’re supposed to jump in. It’s really hard, so I think it’s even a bit better if the guest is telling a great story and it’s not about you as a host needing to be there to banter with them. So that’s a real positive to how Zoom works,” Meyers said.
“But you’re always just on your toes trying to figure out what you should be doing, which a lot easier when you have a guest in studio. The people who show up are so happy to be there. David Harbour, who is always a delight to talk to, you could tell that was a guy who wanted to put his best suit on and go somewhere, so that’s really nice too.”
Finally, Meyers was asked by Deadline whether he’s jealous of other late-night hosts having an audience. “Late Night” has yet to tape in front of a live audience.
“It will be fascinating to see what it’s like to be in front of a talk show audience again. I feel like I’ve forgotten. I’m worried that the first time they make a noise, I’m going to turn on them and scream, “We’re trying to have a conversation.” We’re not rushing back, we’re going to wait until September at the earliest to bring audiences back, but it will be interesting to see it from the other side on The Tonight Show,” Meyers said.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
