Seth Meyers is opening up about his future in late-night.
On a recent episode of “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” Meyers said the future of his show, “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” is “outside of my control,” and that he worries the entire TV “ecosystem” eventually “might not support” evening talk shows altogether. The “Armchair Expert” Instagram account noted that the interview was recorded before the news that “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” was canceled.
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When asked by host Dax Shepard if he had any “fear” that his show could “end tomorrow,” Meyers said, “I do. I mean, only because it is such a time we’re living in, as far as the entertainment industry. There is this weird thing that I feel like I shifted from fearing that I wouldn’t be good enough. And now my fear is weirdly more outside of my control, which is … just at some point, the ecosystem might not support [late-night].”
Meyers added that despite the urge to worry, he tries to focus on the job and trust that his team has his back.
“That’s the only part they’re paying you to do. It’s the only part you’re good at,” Meyers said. “All the other problems, we have people that are as good at that as you are at the thing you do — and don’t mess around with it.”
Later in the interview, Meyers was asked by co-host Monica Padman about his financial stability if “Late Night” was cancelled. He explained he was more worried about his mental well-being than his bank account.
“I would worry about myself, like, mental health-wise,” he said. “But I put a lot of thought into diversifying my skill set. Certainly, financially, I could have been fine just doing the show for the last eleven years. But then it was like, oh, you know what? I feel like there’s something to trying to build a stand-up career and trying to do other things.”
He added, “It’s more like, try to find something that makes you as happy as late night’s making you, but it’s not just to have busy work or anything. It’s like, oh, I like these things, too. And there’s no one entity that can take everything away at once, and I think that’s the scariest situation to be in.”
The long-struggling late-night industry has been put on notice ever since CBS abruptly canceled Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show.” While the network cited the move as a “financial decision,” some have wondered if it was to appease a Donald Trump-controlled FCC amid a pending merger between Paramount, CBS’ parent company, and Skydance.
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