Seth Meyers, the host of NBC’s Late Night, has been candid about the uncertain future of late night television and the fear that comes along with it.
In a recent appearance on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, Meyers opened up about the industry and how he’ll feel if his show comes to an end.
Meyers admitted that he does have fear that his career in late night could “end tomorrow.” “I do. I mean, only because it is such a time we’re living in, as far as the entertainment industry,” he said.
“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 said that he has learned to focus on what he can control, which is “just show up and do the work.” “That’s the only part they’re paying you to do. It’s the only part you’re good at,” he explained.
“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.”
Meyers also took stock of his career, saying, “I sometimes take stock of, oh, this isn’t the best time to be doing what I’m doing, but at least I got in. So I sometimes think, all right, the body of my work matters enough that the world knows Seth Myers in a way that I’m happy with.”
The host also talked about how he has diversified his skill set to ease his worries about Late Night coming to an end. “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.”
After it was announced that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert would be ending in May 2026, Meyers took to his Instagram Story to pay tribute to his late night friend.
“For as great a comedian and host he is, [Stephen Colbert] is an even better person,” he wrote. “I’m going to miss having him on TV every night but I’m excited he can no longer use the excuse that he’s ‘too busy to hang out’ with me.”
