Seth Meyers to Succeed Fallon on ‘Late Night’

Seth Meyers to Succeed Fallon on NBC’s ‘Late Night’

Seth Meyers will be the next host of NBC’s “Late Night,” the network announced Sunday.

Mr. Meyers, the longtime head writer on “Saturday Night Live” and host of its “Weekend Update” segment, will succeed Jimmy Fallon, who is moving up one hour to take over NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

NBC made the appointment, which had been widely expected, one day before Mr. Meyers was to be introduced to advertisers at NBC’s presentation of its new programming lineup at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan.

The assignment will keep Mr. Meyers under the production leadership of Lorne Michaels, who will continue to serve as executive producer of “Late Night” as well as serving in the same position on Mr. Fallon’s “Tonight Show” as it moves to New York. (And of course, he will remain in charge of “SNL.”)

In an interview before taking the stage on Saturday’s edition of “SNL,” Mr. Meyers said, “Working at ‘SNL’ requires 100 percent of your mental capacity â€" on easy weeks. And so I had not really spent a lot of time thinking about what I was going to do next. Obviously I can’t quit Lorne. So this seems like a pretty good deal that I have an opportunity to keep working with him.”

Both hosts are expected to start their new shows around the time of NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics from Russia next February. Mr. Meyers will stay on “SNL” through the fall season before he starts his preparation â€" most likely in January â€" to take over on “Late Night.”

Mr. Michaels said, “The thing that’s staggering to me is that since 1982 there have been only three hosts, and Seth will be the fourth. And when you look at the company, it’s all pretty good company.”

Mr. Meyers will be the next in a line that includes David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Mr. Fallon.

“I am aware of the history,” Mr. Meyers said. “Each chapter of my life has sort of been spent enjoying each of the guys who had the job. Letterman was sort of my first introduction to late-night television. And Conan was all through college and postcollege years. Jimmy, obviously, I think, does it as well as anyone could ever do it.”

Mr. Michaels said there was “complete agreement” at NBC on the choice of Mr. Meyers. “The only name that kept coming up was Seth.” He said of Mr. Meyers, “I think he radiates intelligence. He has a background as a performer and a writer. And because I think he doesn’t like to copy anyone, I think he will find a way to make the show different and distinct and not a mirror of “The Tonight Show.”

No decisions have been made yet about whether the format of the show will change in any substantial way, Mr. Meyers said - not even whether there will be a house band.

“I don’t want to make any broad pronouncements about how the show is going to be, whether it’s going to be the same or different,” Mr. Meyers said. “But I have to draw on my background in improvisational comedy and sketch comedy and stand-up comedy and try to find some mix of that.”

One move Mr. Michaels is making to smooth the transition is keeping Mike Shoemaker as the day-to-day producer of “Late Night” as he has been under Mr. Fallon. “He and Seth are friends,” Mr. Michaels said. “He comes from ‘SNL.’ We will make sure that the show has all the people on it who are the best people we can put on the field.”

The connections to “Saturday Night Live” on NBC’s late-night lineup will never have been more pervasive. Mr. Fallon was a performer on the show and anchored the “Weekend Update” segment, like Mr. Meyers.

The “Late Night” show will remain in New York even with “Tonight” moving back to the city. With “SNL,” all three shows will be housed in studios in NBC’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. That will keep them all close to Mr. Michaels, who will now be in charge of all of NBC’s important late-night franchises.

“It’s all in the same building,” he said. “ ‘Saturday Night Live’ will be more than the majority of my time, as it always has been. Both other shows will be run by people who know what they’re doing, and who I obviously believe in; and we all have a shorthand.”

Mr. Meyers said one thing he would like to bring with him from his “Update” segments is what he called “a two-shot with talented, funny people.” These are his interviews with comedy guests who stop by the anchor desk. “A company of writer-performer hybrids who can come on and do stuff on the show,” was how he described the idea. “We’re in the very early stages of thinking about all this, but that’s very interesting to me.”

Though his selection had seemed all but inevitable, given his skills and his association with Mr. Michaels, Mr. Meyers said he found the idea of separating from “SNL” a bit difficult to embrace.

“It always seemed like a logical next move,” Mr. Meyers said. “It was just competing with the very emotional idea of leaving a place I have been for a very long time. But if you are going to do that, it seems like you might as well just move a hallway or two.”