Last week, much of late night’s programming was dominated by Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert discussing the tragedy in Las Vegas, and how the country could avoid the next senseless massacre with some sensible gun control. The deflection campaigns on the right, however, continually brought up an important story by the New York Times, an outlet they usually like to debase, detailing the decades of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein. Why weren’t the “Hollywood elite” mentioning a man who has donated millions to Democratic campaigns?
After a few days, late night collectively began to address Weinstein’s many, many allegations, but the Late Night with Seth Meyers made what many are considering the most impactful segment on the allegations — a rapid-fire address by a trio of his female writers. Still, why didn’t they take down Weinstein with the quickness? They’ve made a big show about rewriting monologues and segments when it came to Trump?
In a brief interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Seth Meyers explained the process:
“You know, it happened on Thursday, and we only had a show on Thursday [before Monday]. And I was not prepared to talk about something as tricky as sexual assault in a way that I felt would be appropriate that quickly. I felt we responded to it as fast as we respond to anything else.”
Meyers continued by saying the decision to take on most anything with nuance will take time with his writing staff: “But when we do things like ‘A Closer Look,’ part of, I think, what makes them effective is we really try to explain an issue. So more often than not, because we have a show tomorrow, if we feel like it’s an issue that deserves a little bit of patience and observation to make sure we have a take that will not feel weird the next day.”
It seems more effective than tweeting random thoughts in the early morning hours.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
