"Late Night" Is Dead, Long Live "Late Night" (With Seth Meyers)

With all the fuss over Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show takeover, another pending move has gone somewhat overlooked. Now it’s time for Seth Meyers to step into the spotlight, as he takes over NBC’s Late Night. It’s been a strange month over at NBC.

Much like Fallon is already doing on The Tonight Show, Meyers (another SNL alum) will bring his own style to Late Night. He will also have to face the perils of sleep deprivation, when he follows in the footsteps of predecessors David Letterman, Conan O’Brian and Fallon and starts working the insomniac time slot. Mostly though, Meyers is looking forward to the new challenge, as he moves on from SNL. Besides having hosted SNL’s Weekend Update segment since 2006, Meyers has little hosting experience. His Late Night will be remade to reflect his strengths – writing, scripted bits and, of course, some trademark Meyers banter.

As a Northwestern student when O'Brien, a former Simpsons writer, started on Late Night, "I liked how Conan used his writing staff to play different people," he said for USA Today. "We have a writing staff that has a lot of that range. They're great writers, but they're also really funny performers. We are going to try to use them as often as we can. In a weird way, the closest thing I'll have to a sidekick is my writing staff and the people they'll play."

As for the structure, the opening monologue (naturally) will be followed by a guest or two and interviews with newly made-up characters. Late Night with Seth Meyers premieres tonight, at 12:37 a.m. ET/PT.