The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
Late Night Sails On Amid COVID Surge
Live audiences were the first to go, but shows have forged ahead with a mix of in-studio and remote guests in January
While COVID-19 has infected several late night hosts in the past month, the shows they front haven’t made many drastic changes in how they operate amid the latest virus spike.
Seth Meyers and James Corden — who in January revealed positive COVID-19 tests — are staying out of the studio for now, while Jimmy Fallon has returned to full production on NBC’s The Tonight Show. And other late night shows are largely staying the course even as coronavirus cases are hitting previously unseen levels in New York and L.A.
Fallon was the first major host to catch the virus, revealing that he tested positive on the first day of the show’s holiday break in December. He has since recovered and returned to his show, hosting a mix of instudio and remote guests and live audiences since production resumed earlier in January.
Meyers, who hosts NBC’s Late Night, revealed his own positive test Jan. 4. The remainder of that week’s shows were scrapped, but the host was set to return to work — albeit remotely — Jan. 10. Late Night also will forgo live audiences for the time being, but crewmembers will continue to work from the show’s Rockefeller Center studio in New York.
CBS’ Late Late Show will be in reruns until Jan. 18 following Corden’s Jan. 6 announcement that he tested positive for COVID-19. Like Meyers and Fallon, Corden said he’s been vaccinated and received a booster shot; all three only had mild symptoms. Because Corden’s diagnosis came latest, The Late Late Show has yet to settle on firm plans for its return. Jimmy Kimmel Live! was the last of the network shows to return from the holidays, resuming Jan. 10 on ABC. The show will feature a reduced audience and a mix of in-studio and remote guests and, like its counterparts, will abide by local and CDC guidelines. Saturday Night Live was the first late night program to be affected by omicron, having to scuttle much of its Dec. 18 episode. It’s set to return
Jan. 15, though, with West Side Story’s Ariana DeBose hosting and Roddy Ricch as musical guest. And The Daily Show With Trevor Noah is remaining dark for the next couple of weeks, extending its holiday hiatus in light of all that’s happening. Corden’s fellow CBS host, The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert, returned from the holidays to live audiences and guests. Colbert joked on his Jan. 4 show that he’d continue hosting it at the Ed Sullivan Theater as long as possible rather than go back to filming in a replica of his office: “I will do the show with no makeup in a sweat suit on a GoPro.”