Who says late-night hosts can’t work from home?
Studios are deserted and audiences hunkered down at home practicing social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic, but Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, Seth Meyers and Conan O’Brien are still trying to bring a little laughter into the world.
HBO lived up to its Home Box Office name Tuesday, announcing that John Oliver and Bill Maher will return with full shows filmed from their homes.
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” has a new episode scheduled for Sunday (11 EDT/PDT), while “Real Time with Bill Maher” is back on April 3 (10 EDT/PDT).
Although most television and movie production is suspended, many late-night hosts also are bringing short-form DIY versions of their comedy to audiences via YouTube and now, in some cases, incorporated into reruns of their network shows. And their kids, pets and spouses often show up in the videos, as is becoming common for workers participating in meetings via video chat from home.
In the absence of their regularly scheduled episodes, it appears the comics are working from home for the long run, trying to bring a sense of levity and maybe even a bit of normalcy to the world, however they can. So far, it’s incredibly welcome, even if all the jokes don’t land.
Trevor Noah
Noah expands “The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah,” an at-home digital edition started last week, to full, original episodes airing on Comedy Central(11 EDT/PDT).
Noah had experimented with shorter sketches and clips on his YouTube page, including one with “cleaning tips” for coronavirus, in which he “cleaned” everything in his house, from the water coming out of his tap to a piece of a clementine.
Jimmy Fallon
In an example of late-night cross-pollination, Noah will be Fallon’s guest Monday on the “The Tonight Show: At Home Edition,” available on the “Tonight” social channels and the weeknight NBC show (11:35 EDT/PDT). Later in the week, Fallon’s remote guests include John Legend, Niall Horan, Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey.
Fallon’s “At Home Edition,” will be part of each night’s NBC broadcast, which also will be made up of bits and segments from multiple earlier episodes.
In Fallon’s first “At Home” video, the host’s 6-year-old daughter drew a new version of his “Tonight Show” graphic, but was unwilling to participate as his band leader. His wife happily filmed him as he read jokes his writers sent in from home, ate Irish Soda Bread to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and sang a quarantine ditty. From the guy who brought you songs played with classroom instruments, the playroom vibe really worked for Fallon. Also, is anyone surprised he has a slide in his house?
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Seth Meyers
Meyers, host of NBC’s “Late Night,” joins the out-of-office fun during the week of March 23, when he starts recording his “Closer Look” segments from home. They will be released digitally on the show’s YouTube channel.
Samantha Bee
Bee, who hosts “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” on TBS, showed off her (lack of) survival skills in a video posted to YouTube Wednesday. The video, titled “Sam gets into survival mode,” shows Bee in the wilderness, struggling to chop wood in preparation for the spread of coronavirus.
“At the end of the day, it’s like what Scar from ‘The Lion King’ said: We all have to be prepared,” the host explains. “He’s the hero of that movie.”
The video was the first in a daily digital series called “Beeing At Home With Samantha Bee!” Bee will return to TBS with full episodes taped from her home on March 25.
Jimmy Kimmel
ABC’s Kimmel, who shared his first “#minilogue” last Tuesday, will be offering a new mini-monologue each weeknight via social media and the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” YouTube channel.
Kimmel was all-in on St. Patrick’s Day, wearing a green Guinness shirt from his own office (he’s hiding from the kids that he just “discovered” he had) and suggested ways to celebrate from home: Dyeing hand sanitizer green and drinking. Kimmel, among the other comics, got a lot of mileage out of Tom Brady announcing he is leaving the New England Patriots on St. Patrick’s Day in the middle of a global crisis. Tough day for Bostonians.
Conan O’Brien
O’Brien, who has been filming short videos during a pre-scheduled hiatus of TBS’ “Conan,” will join the remote-taping fun when his show returns March 30. Videos will be shot on an iPhone, sans studio audience and O’Brien will conduct guest interviews via video chat. The “Conan” production staff will be working from home.“The quality of my work will not go down because technically, that’s not possible,” said O’Brien said in a statement.
Stephen Colbert
Colbert added new monologue entries filmed at home to “The Late Show” repeats last week from Monday through Wednesday, before the CBS show started a previously scheduled hiatus that runs until March 30.
Colbert was way ahead of the curve last week, delivering a monologue from his bathtub Monday. On Tuesday, the comedian “discovered fire” in his back yard (while wearing AirPods, natch) and still found a way to break out his Trump impression. His video had more of the trappings of this usual show, including opening credits, graphics, cuts to news clips and a video of his band leader John Batiste playing the piano from his own house. He and Colbert still managed to do a socially distanced and coronavirus-specific version of “Oh, Danny Boy” to celebrate St. Patty’s.
Contributing: Hannah Yasharoff
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