Fresh off the first Emmy nomination for “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in the Outstanding Variety Talk Series category, host Seth Meyers sat down with TheWrap for our inaugural video AMA to answer fan-submitted questions about everything from “SNL” memories to his favorite soup. Indeed, we relayed a diverse range of questions to Meyers that fully embodied the spirit of “Ask Me Anything,” and unsurprisingly the “Late Night” host was more than game to answer.
“I know you’re supposed to say you’re not excited about these things because they don’t matter, but I was deeply excited by the Emmy nomination,” Meyers said with a chuckle when asked how he was feeling about the show’s Emmy nomination for Variety Talk Series.
This is the first nomination for “Late Night” in the category since Meyers’ show began in 2014, although the show has previously received four nominations in the Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series category (and Meyers himself is also nominated this year for Outstanding Short Form Comedy alongside executive producer Mike Shoemaker for the YouTube exclusive “Corrections”).
Much has been written about the evolution of “Late Night” during the pandemic, in which the show shifted into a more loose and surprisingly serialized form with Meyers interacting directly with the show’s fans via YouTube comments. One fan asked Meyers in our AMA about the show’s community-building in general, and whether it was instinctual or intentional.
“I think everything about those first couple of months in quarantine were instinct-inspired and figuring out how to do the show took up so much brain space, just the technical aspects of it, and when it got to the actual creative part of the show you had to just go on gut alone,” he replied. “And then because there wasn’t an audience and a studio we did – I should say I did – start reading YouTube comments because I’m a monster of ego who needs to be fed, and it was really cool to find out people were paying attention to the small things. And then we just started planting Easter Eggs in the show, which we’d never thought about doing before, from really dumb bits with a hardcover copy of ‘The Thorn Birds’ to a tiny door behind my shoulder to a talking sea captain painting which is divisive to this day.”
Meyers was also asked if he’s read any Stefon/Seth Meyers fan-fiction, answering that he hasn’t but adding, “I’m positive I wouldn’t hate it.” But the question spurred Meyers to tell a touching story about Bill Hader’s final “SNL.”
“When Bill and I ran off stage, if you remember the final Stefon where we got married, and he left and then I followed him and then there was the pre-tape and then we ran back in and he had a wedding veil on,” Meyers began. “But we were standing backstage, it was Bill’s last show, it was Fred’s last show, it was Jason’s last show, it very much felt like the end of an era. And I was standing backstage holding hands with Hader because we were gonna run into the studio holding hands. We just held hands way earlier than we needed to and we were watching our phony wedding on TV backstage and we were both tearing up, and I remember thinking, ‘I’m getting for-real married in four months and I better cry at that one too. Because it’ll be super weird if I only cry at the Stefon one.”
Check out the full Seth Meyers AMA in the video above to see him talk about his favorite “Late Night” guests, “Hot Rod 2,” advice for aspiring talk show hosts, his favorite soup and more.
You can sign up to participate in future Wrap AMAs right here.
