The first time Seth Meyers’ Late Night was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Talk Series category he decided to go for a run in New York without his phone. Last year, the writers strike had shut down production of his NBC late-night show.
“What was wonderful about this year is it’s the first time — there’s only been three — but it was the first time our show got nominated when we were in the office, because we had a show that night,” Meyers said. “I will admit, I was not particularly bullish on our chances, and I found out the best possible way, which is I heard our staff cheer through my shut office door. And you know me, I don’t ever want to hear my staff nor do I ever want to open my door and engage with them.”
Related Stories
Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees event, Meyers added: “To walk out and share it with a staff who were really genuinely happy, it was a cool thing. There have been many years where I found out we weren’t nominated in the early years of our show by hearing the muted curses of our staff through my door. So I will say this was far preferable.”
Late Night with Seth Meyers is nominated alongside The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. There had been a suggestion that Hot Ones or John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s In LA, hosted by Meyers’ good friend and former Late Night writer, might have entered the race. “While personally it would have been a drag, I would not have complained if either of those shows had been nominated,” the host said. “It’s always cool when someone does something different with the format, and certainly both of those are really good examples of that.”
RELATED: Deadline’s Contenders TV: The Nominees – Full Coverage
Meyers and many of his late-night peers have been on hiatus for the past few weeks, a remarkable time for American politics. “Everyone celebrates how the Olympics bring all the nations of the world together for their academic competition, but no one talks about how it affects me,” he joked. “We did leave for this Olympic-induced hiatus confident that we would miss massive news stories. I don’t think any of us expected it to be [before] the hiatus started. It was Sunday when [President Biden ended his re-election campaign], and we knew that we were going to be just off for three weeks.”
RELATED: Emmy Nominations Analysis: Fresh Blood Livens Up The Race For TV Gold
Late Night also is nominated for Outstanding Music Direction, something Meyers called “bittersweet” given that NBC is axing The 8G Band. “The gratitude I have for any of our nominations is dwarfed by the gratitude I have for the Emmy voters honoring the band and what Eli Janney and Fred Armisen have done for the last 10 years,” he said.
Check out the panel video above.