Late-night Formats Forced to Change Amid Coronavirus

JAMES CORDEN WAS ONE OF THE FIRST TO DELIVER AT-HOME CONTENT WITH ‘HOMEFEST’

Michael Schneider

THE EMMY RACE FOR variety talk series took a dramatic turn at the end of March, when the late-night shows all found themselves pivoting to a new, at-home format. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down most TV productions, but the talk shows were able to continue — albeit with makeshift setups that grew more professional as the weeks went on.

It remains to be seen whether the coronavirus will affect the competition, particularly given how little movement there has been in recent years. The 2019 nominees — “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” “The Daily

Show With Trevor Noah,” “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Late Late Show With James Corden” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” — were all unchanged from 2018. And “Last Week Tonight” has won every year since 2016, after Jon Stewart left “The Daily Show.”

But the remote telecasts have managed to shake up the form in new ways, including a lack of a studio audience and a looser, casual feel among some hosts. Others have tweaked their formats while still leaning into the reality of the situation. And because they’re mixing things up, many of the shows have even adopted temporary, alternative titles: “The Late Show” is now “A Late Show,” while “The Daily Show” is now “The Daily Social Distancing Show.”

Bee is hosting from the woods behind her New York home, Oliver is filming in front of a white backdrop in what appears to be a closet in his house, and “Watch What Happens Live’s” Andy Cohen was in his home office before recently relocating to the Hamptons.

“Late Late Show” executive producer Ben Winston tells me he still recalls how quickly everything changed. On March 12