Seth Meyers, the host of Late Night With Seth Meyers, announced that he tested positive for Covid-19, via CNN Business. As a result, he canceled the rest of his shows this week, aiming for a speedy recovery. He also stated that the audience should “tune in next Monday to see what cool location we will try and pass off as a studio!!!”
Like many other talk show hosts, Meyers and his show have gone through a challenging yet resilient phase. During the early pandemic, he did shows from his attic with guests on video. The show then went on to be on virtual platforms for months. More recently, the show returned to its studio based on the update of safety guidelines. Likely, the new wave of the variant virus will once again affect the format of the show.
“When you’re a talk show host, and not just me but my colleagues as well, people really feel like they know you. And through this year they felt like they knew us even more than before because they were seeing us in our homes, they were seeing our children, they were seeing our spouses,” Meyers told CNN Business in April of 2021. “And so if there is such a thing as a connection with a TV show, I think that probably got strengthened this year.”
Meyers is not the only talk show host that contracted the virus recently. Jimmy Fallon, the host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, said on Instagram that he, too, had tested positive for the virus. “Thank you to NBC for taking the testing protocols so seriously and doing a great job,” wrote Fallon on his Instagram. “And also thanks for putting me in the ‘What ‘chu talkin’ about Willis?’ isolation room when they told me the news.”
However, both Meyers and Fallon acknowledged the beneficial outcomes of the covid vaccines in their statements. Meyers expressed that he is feeling fine “thanks vaccines and booster!” Fallon said that, “I was vaccinated and boostered which made me lucky enough to only have mild symptoms.”
It’s no secret that the newest variant of Covid-19, Omicron, is spreading rampantly throughout the globe. The number of daily new cases of the United States reached an all-time record. And the number may keep growing to a new peak. As one of the most populated cities, New York City is suffering from rapidly growing positive cases and hospitalizations. This severely impacted the entertainment industry of New York. Most Broadway shows paused their performances until further notice. NBC’s Saturday Night Live canceled its live audience as well as the highly anticipated performance by Charli XCX. Other near events such as the Grammys are also postponed due to health concerns.