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00:00Hello and welcome back to Contenders Television, documentary unscripted and variety. I'm Peter
00:06White. I'm the executive editor of television at Deadline. You know him from day drinking his way
00:11through late night. Our next panel features Seth Meyers, host of NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers.
00:17On NBC for over 10 years and 1600 episodes, Late Night with Seth Meyers has been picking up awards
00:23theme over the last few years, getting three consecutive Emmy nominations in the main late
00:28night category. Seth will be joining us to talk all things late night, but before we get behind the
00:33desk, let's watch a clip. Paul is an incredible actor and so am I. So we're going to play a game
00:40where we look at a script and have to memorize the lines in just one minute and then do an iconic
00:47scene. Paul, are you ready? Nope. Okay. But it doesn't matter. I'll still try. All right, put it
00:53down. Paul and rock and roll. Here it is. What if Taken starred Paul Rudd instead of Liam Neeson and go.
01:03I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you're looking for a ransom,
01:09I don't have the money. What I do have is a very particular set of skills. If you let my daughter
01:20go, I'll be on my way. I'll not bother you anymore. And instead, you go about living your life. But
01:31did I mention one of the key skills is killing? I feel like when I said particular set of skills,
01:41it was vague. Also, my daughter, she's a lot. Here's the truth. She's going to drive you
01:53friggin' mental. She's furious. I never took her to the heiress tour. From here on out, when you say
02:03the troubles, it'll refer to her trying to pick out an outfit. Let me make this clear so you can hear
02:11me. Yous can have her. I hope. Hold on. Paul. Paul wants to work. He's the best. If you ever have a
02:23chance to day drink with Paul Rudd, run. Don't walk to the bar. Absolutely. Absolutely. It feels
02:30like you're choosing these day drinking sessions with people you just want to go out for a beer
02:34with rather than anything else. Yeah. I will say alcohol had to do the least amount of work for a
02:41successful day drinking with Paul. He is, you know, I'm not saying he's always a little bit
02:46drunk. I just feel a little bit drunk every time I'm around him. Are you just choosing these people
02:51you know you can realistically out drink? I never see you do these with, you know, Jason Momoa or
02:56Dwayne Johnson. Hey, I'll take them all on. Again, there's some people that I feel as though
03:04I maybe had a chance to get drank under the table and I've held my own.
03:13It's a nice segment of the clips. You sort of been doing this day drinking. Obviously,
03:18a closer look went to primetime as well. And you know, I'm a big fan of corrections.
03:23Yes. Thank you for your support.
03:25Yes. But before we get into some of those, the sort of main part of the show, I felt like
03:30earlier this year that when the president called you Marble Mouth Myers, it was a real sort of moment
03:36for you. It felt like it felt like you sort of a badge of honor. It was there any any part of you
03:42that took it as a badge of honor? I don't know if we took it as a badge of honor. And, you know, we did
03:46decide not to explicitly address it. We sort of vaguely made reference to it for those who had noticed that
03:55he said that, you know, we're very aware that he's just sort of a lighthouse of rage and just sort of
04:02spinning around. And sometimes you're in the light and sometimes you're out of it. And we don't want
04:07to, you know, we're not doing it to make him angry. You know, we're doing it to, you know, be funny
04:15about what's happening in the world. You know, his anger is is not something that, you know, we are.
04:20Oh, hooray. We got called out by the president. In fact, I think it's bad that the president calls out
04:24anybody, you know, especially journalists, universities and law firms. But as a comedian, I'm happy to
04:30be, you know, in his crosshairs. If the reason we're in his crosshairs, we're just sort of telling the
04:36truth about things. Yeah. And you evidently haven't changed anything about the way you do the show since
04:41then. It's no, it would be very, I mean, that would have been the funny thing is if literally the next
04:47episode, all of a sudden we were just doing like some weird desk piece that we did in 2014.
04:52Well, you know, who's a great guy? That Mike Lindell. He's a really great guy.
04:56Oh, my God. We're doing a new segment called, yeah. Pillow Roulette with our friend Mike Lindell.
05:04We've got another three and a half years of this, Seth. Have you got another three and a half years
05:08of you and of this in you?
05:10You know, I obviously the burden of this administration is heavier on a lot of other
05:15people more than it is on us. So it's one foot in front of the other.
05:19We did have to reassess our approach. We knew that if we were tonally the exact same that we'd been in
05:262016, it would feel almost like a television show that was doing, you know, repeats when they should
05:32be doing live shows. So we put a lot of talk into the tone and are happy so far. I think there was a
05:43initial dread. And then we realized, oh, you know, while the world still has a lot of things that we
05:48find very, you know, hard to stomach, they're easier to stomach when you get to work with the
05:53people we work with and be in front of an audience that sort of wants to have the catharsis of talking
05:58about things that are beyond the pale.
06:00What do you mean in terms of changing your tone? Is that in terms of working through with the
06:06writers?
06:06Yeah, it was, I think we, you know, and again, I think the whole world is trying to come, not the
06:12whole world, obviously, I think there's plenty of people who think this is going grandly, but
06:15not that sort of full fish shaking resistance out of the gate, which felt like what 2016 had,
06:26because everybody had been so caught flat-footed by the outcome of that election. Certainly going
06:33into this one, we all assumed it was a bit of a coin flip. So it wasn't as though we didn't go into
06:41election day thinking this was impossible. But once it sort of came to pass, you know, then you have
06:45that weird sort of, you know, two months before you know what kind of presidency it's going to be.
06:50Certainly you have enough data to make a pretty fair guess, which I think we did. And
06:55have been born out to be correct with our fears. But, you know, you just sort of roll along with
07:01it. And there was a little bit more of, we have to make sure we're still joyful in the way we write
07:07and perform the show, because I don't think people want to tune in to see something that feels dark.
07:14And so the part of this that we're in charge of is tone. And we've just tried to continue to have
07:19as much fun as we can, while not pretending that the things that are happening in the world right
07:22now are fun to experience. The hardest thing I imagine for you, compared to under the Biden
07:28administration is the ripping up the script at what, 3pm and having to start again, that always
07:34felt pretty tricky for you guys on the East Coast. Yeah, I feel pretty confident now based on the four
07:40years of the Biden administration that he was fully fast asleep by 430. Like we never, we never had to
07:46change a line. So, you know, and again, probably should have been up a little bit later than 430.
07:51But for the purposes of our cue card department, it was appreciated. Yeah, I mean, stuff is changing
07:57all the time. You know, press conferences that start, and you think, well, how long can a press
08:04conference go? And you know, when it's rolling into the third hour, you realize, okay, we're probably
08:07not going to be able to cover everything here. One of the nice luxuries of having done a show over 10
08:13years, we feel as though our audience knows we're not going to get to everything. And we have a show
08:18tomorrow. So we'll get to that. Although, you know, the funny thing is when you miss it by an hour,
08:22let's say, by the next show, that's the oldest news in the world. So there's plenty we never get around
08:29to. No, I can imagine. I loved a recent interview you did on the show with Tim Robinson, where he
08:36revealed you essentially are a talk show host, even when you go out for dinner with your friends. Is that
08:41through, Sid? You know what? He said it, and I felt so much shame when he said it, because I think in
08:49the back of my mind, I knew that I had grown this terrible quality of... Part of it is I'm so happy
08:56to see my old SNL friends. And when we have dinner, it's a ticking clock. Like, I know we're not, you
09:01know... The best part about working at SNL is just idle hangout, right? You can go sit in somebody's
09:07office for four hours. There's no time in my life for that anymore. So when I see the people that I
09:12used to just sort of idly sit around with, I'm desperate for information. But yeah, he busted me
09:17for the fact that I will not allow a lull to happen at the table. And then who will ask some pretty
09:24talk show hosty type questions to my dear friends? You can tell this is all-consuming for you as a
09:30talk show host. Yes. It is funny. You know, he kept calling it a lull, which is true. I think when you
09:36are, you know, in this game of being a talk show host, like a lull just... It's so deafening when
09:45nothing is happening because you feel as though it's your fault. And so I have to give myself
09:51permission to, in my private life, allow the lull to return. More lulls. Talking of SNL, you were
09:57evidently there at SNL 50. I was there, baby. You were talking to yourself next to Keith Richards. Yeah.
10:03Have you been able to process that? Obviously, I know you did a lot of interviews and podcasts
10:09immediately after. Yeah. But, you know, a few months on, have you processed it?
10:16You know, it's that wonderful thing about SNL. I don't know if I fully processed it. It was so
10:21wonderful and so stressful. There were parts of it that were awful, you know, but mostly because
10:29it's this giant machine and you just are constantly asking yourself where you fit in
10:34it. And then it was over and I thought, wow, this is the biggest thing that ever happened.
10:40I feel as though this might be the last great Hollywood party. This is, this feels like the
10:45end of something. And yet the magic of SNL is they've done, what, four shows since? And
10:50all of a sudden you just realize it just sort of churns along. And it's such a trip for me
10:54because obviously I worked down the hallway from it. And, you know, this great Hollywood
11:01party that celebrated 50 years, like a day later was just a hallway again. It's so weird
11:07to work right next to it. But it was such a cool thing. I've been lucky enough to talk to
11:13Lauren afterwards. And I think he's, you know, as he should be really satisfied and happy
11:20with it. I was so cool to see and get to work with the current crop of writers who are so
11:26great. And that includes, you know, Colin Jost and Michael Che, who obviously I overlapped
11:31with, but, you know, watching what they did on the 50th was, was exceptional as well.
11:37Yeah. No, if I was in New York for it and you could feel the city, just the buzz around the
11:41city for, yeah, it was certainly something special.
11:43So there were like posters of all of us in the subway and didn't take a single picture
11:50like that thing of like, ah, you know, and again, part of it, look, Peter, you don't want
11:53to get caught taking a picture of yourself in the subway. You know, I don't know if you've
11:56heard about the New York City subways, but the people who ride it can be snarky with their
12:01comments.
12:01I would like to see that. Yes. How do you generally feel about the current state of late night?
12:06You know, we saw recently CBS has decided not even to go up against you at 1230 anymore.
12:11Yes. I, you know, look, it's for every, it feels almost for every exciting, you know,
12:17new edition, like, uh, with what Mulaney's doing in Netflix, it feels like one or two
12:21things falls off. And, um, you know, I always just sort of breaks my heart because this was
12:26such a cool destination for people in comedy. You know, I was lucky enough to have this
12:29obviously be the step for me after SNL. And, you know, so every time it feels like there's
12:34less of these opportunities and, and the cool thing that, you know, after midnight was doing
12:38is, you know, not only did they have, uh, you know, a host, uh, you know, it was also
12:43a really nice place for three comedians to get to do their thing. So, uh, it's, it's
12:49disappointing, you know, it's never good when, um, when, when, uh, comedy platforms go
12:54away.
12:54Yeah. Um, talking of comedy platforms or solo comedy platforms, Corrections, uh, as I said
13:00at the start, big, big fan. Um, no carpool karaoke this year. You've got no, you can't
13:05blame James Gordon if Corrections doesn't finally win the, uh, the big game.
13:09Yeah. Uh, no, I think you should leave, which won, I think two years ago. No, the after
13:14show for, um, only murders won last year. They're out. It's a fucking lock. I mean, I
13:19know you're not supposed to say this, but, uh, and look, I think there's a real risk for
13:25Emmy voters and, you know, for late night honor to be nominated, but Corrections should
13:32definitely win. And if you don't vote for it, there's this chance that like 20 years
13:38from now, it's like the wire where people are like, you know, that never won an Emmy
13:42and people will be like, Oh my God. And so am I saying that Corrections is, uh, the wire
13:48of, uh, short form digital content? Yeah. And I think anybody who watches both would say
13:54the same.
13:55I'm going to remind you of that in 20 years.
13:57Well, yeah, sure. Um, well, me and, well, me and David Simon are off just in the corner
14:02muttering about how nobody, how nobody can recognize talent with Keith Richards slightly
14:07off screen. Did you hear my story about bringing Keith Richards a water was the highlight. The
14:14highlight of my SNL 50th is it was, you know, again, super famous people don't sit in one
14:21place for three and a half hours, but that was, that was our sort of, uh, you know, that
14:27was the cost of entry to the SNL 50th is you had to be an audience for three and a half hours.
14:32And it was very hot in that studio. There were more people than usual. They added seats.
14:38And so I went to my dressing room at one point. I just brought a bunch of waters in and, uh,
14:42I offered one to Keith Richards water. He was water. Now, again, he did when he took
14:50a sip of it, he spit it out. I don't know if he's ever had it before, but a final question
14:55at the New York times recently at a headline, Seth Meyers, isn't as nice as you think he
15:00is. How used was your wife with that headline?
15:03I mean, she was, I think she was finally like, thank God somebody is writing. She's been
15:07taking that to the streets, but it was, you know, it was one person at a time. So for
15:11it to be in a, in a, in a major publication, uh, she was thrilled.
15:15Yeah, I can imagine. Well, so thank you for joining us and good luck with your lock and,
15:19uh, and with late night.
15:21Right. Thank you very much, Peter. It's always nice to talk to you.
15:24You too.