Was the Lincoln “Louie” skit something you suggested or did he come with that?
Meyers: No, I wrote that, with a ton of help from Louie [C.K.] once we came up with the idea.
Did that just come out of the good timing of he was hosting and Lincoln was out?
Meyers: Pretty much. And being a fan of the show and wanting to do something like that.
With “Late Night,” are there sketches you were never able to do, not that you were waiting for this but this will give you a chance to launch them?
Meyers: I think the thing that is nice about “Late Night” is I think the ideas you have that you don’t quite know how to form it completely into a sketch can live on “Late Night” in a way they couldn’t on “SNL.” I don’t know if I’ve had those ideas yet. I certainly don’t have a book of ideas that I’m waiting to finally get on “Late Night” but it will be fun to think about comedy ideas in a slightly different way.
What about doing topical humor nightly versus weekly?
Meyers: I think nightly will be a thrill because so much of “SNL” now, by the time it gets to Saturday, there are so many people who are so great at that job, and by that job I mean making jokes about what’s going on in the news, that by Saturday there are weeks where it feels a little bit combed over. It feels like it’s already been done the best possible way, so it’ll be fun to be in the crowd of people that do it once a night.
You’ve done a few Weekend Updates where you do three or four versions of the same joke. Will you be able to spread that out each night now?
Meyers: I do like doing four in a row. I think that’s more fun then spreading them out over four nights.
You mention how it’s impossible to keep up with all of your friends’ shows. I find the same thing. It’s my job to watch everything and I can’t watch everything, and Hulu is part of the problem because so much is available and now there’s original stuff too. How does that change the way we’re going to relate to our entertainment and choose what we can watch?
Shoemaker: Create subsets. It’s like sports teams. There’s a bunch of people that follow this thing and then you’ll have friends, “Do you watch ‘Homeland?’ No? How about this?” You talk about that. It makes everybody in these little alliances. There’s no way to be all over.
Meyers: It is that world too of Amazon suggestions, like if you like blank you’ll like blank.
But those are always wrong.
Meyers: They’re wrong but I think that’s the way your friends are going to talk to you. If you say, “I started watching ‘The Bridge’” they’re going to be like, “Oh, if you like ‘The Bridge, you’re going to love…” You’ll have things recommended based on your tastes more than, “Oh, you should definitely be watching this.” I lost a day on Hulu, this show “The Take” with Tom Hardy. It’s like a 2009 British [show]. I have all this TV to catch up on and then I suddenly end up watching four episodes of some 2009 British crime show.
It’s true, besides what I have to cover, I choose some shows that my friends watch, or I’m on an online forum that follows this type of movie or show.
Meyers: The good news is, there’s never a day where I have nothing to watch. If I ever find a free hour, I’m always backlogged on the things I feel like I should be watching.
Are the days of flipping around to see what’s on over, because there’s always a queue somewhere that you have to catch up on?
Meyers: I can’t believe, Andy Samberg is someone who will still be like, “I watched A Knight’s Tale last night because it was on.” What era are we living in?
Shoemaker: You do that with your wife, when you can’t decide, you just look. It happens that way.
Meyers: We’re always working through a queue.
Is there anything you still want to do on “SNL” before your time’s up?
Meyers: I don’t know if there’s anything I still want to do but I am really happy that I’m going to get 10 more shows to just do “SNL” for one more half a season because the longer you’re there, the more you try different things that you haven’t tried before and that tends to be fairly rewarding.
Will you be involved in choosing the next Update anchor?
Meyers: I don’t think I’ll be involved. Lorne [Michaels] is someone who asks people’s advice but as we always say, everybody else combined is like 1% of the vote and then Lorne is 99 so in the end, it’ll be Lorne’s decision but I do think he’s going to have a lot of good people to choose from.
Is there anyone currently on that you think would be a good replacement?
Meyers: I think there are multiple people on that would be great at it.
