Late Night With Seth Meyers cancels shows due to COVID
Meyers joins a growing number of late night hosts to be re-infected after previously testing positive in January
It sure seems that America’s late night hosts are a population particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Seth Meyers has canceled his shows for the rest of the week after testing positive for the second time this year.
“After negative tests Monday and Tuesday I tested positive for Covid this morning,” the NBC host wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “Canceling shows the rest of this week. Apologies to our scheduled guests and loyal viewers.”
Per Deadline, the slate of guests for the canceled shows include Nathan Lane and musical guest Maren Morris on Wednesday, Adam Pally and Issa Rae on Thursday, and Nikki Glaser on Friday.
Many of Meyers’ fellow late night hosts have had to go off the air due to contracting coronavirus. Stephen Colbert first tested positive in April; in May, the show announced he was “experiencing symptoms consistent with a recurrence of COVID” and would “be isolating for a few additional days,” so tapings of his show was canceled.
Similarly, Jimmy Kimmel contracted the virus in early May and tapped comedian Mike Birbiglia to step in as guest-host. A few weeks later, guests John Mulaney and Andy Samberg memorably had to fill in when the host tested positive again: “That’s right… Jimmy has contracted COVID again, for the second time in three weeks,” Samberg said in the monologue. “And we’re thinking they should probably change the name of the show to ‘Jimmy Kimmel… Alive.’”
James Corden canceled episodes of The Late Late Show due to COVID in January, the same month that Meyers first tested positive. And The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon contracted the virus during his show’s holiday break.
All this to say, COVID persists in infecting comedians and presidents alike. It never hurts to wear a mask, particularly with other infectious diseases cropping up out there. Wishing Seth Meyers a speedy recovery.