Late Night With Called-In Favours

Last night, Seth Meyers hosted his very first episode of Late Night, breaking a barrier by becoming the first youngish white male late night talk show host from New Hampshire as far as I know? Just kidding! Of course he would be hard to pick out of a lineup of current late night hosts, and of course his show does not break much ground in terms of its format. He starts with a monologue, moves on to a couple of desk pieces, and then interviews a couple of famous people, just as his forebears have done since the late night show was invented back in the Edwardian era. Not that anyone expected anything different to happen, probably; if you want to know whether it pays off to break the late night talk show mold in literally any way, you can ask W. Kamau Bell allllllll about it. So if Meyers couldn't (or, at any rate, didn't) take any risks, he might as well play it safe with his guests, too, and boy, did he ever do that. Lining up one Dealmaker for his first show might have still left the possibility that the second would be a dud. So Meyers booked two Dealmakers, and I, for one, was happy to see them both.

First up: Amy Poehler. If we ever have a Dealmakers Hall Of Fame, I will be leading the charge to make her our first inductee; after all, she's the only person, to date, to have played two different Characters We Love. Poehler is such a champ that she could make any talk show host look good, but, of course, she and Meyers go way back -- so far back, in fact, that when they were both on SNL, my crackpot theory was that Meyers was in unrequited love with her (my evidence being that they played couples a lot, and that in those sketches he seemed to take every opportunity to get real physical and cozy with her -- a tendency that also extended to the times I saw them together in ASSSSCAT shows at the UCB Theatre in New York). She even foregrounds how easy she makes a celebrity interview look by letting him practice his skills while she pretends to be a difficult guest -- "I'm not going to say an actress; it could be an author, or probably an actress."

Congratulations, Amy Poehler! Put your Kristen Stewart impression on your résumé!

Then there's the man Poehler dubbed "gorgeous charm monster," Vice President Joe Biden. And for God's sake, any one of us could prepare a good interview of this son of a bitch: just bring up the last two folksy things he did, same as when Meyers was anchoring Weekend Update!

Not to mention that, as great as Poehler and Biden are separately, putting them together is just a reunion from when Biden met Leslie Knope on Parks & Recreation back in 2012. Frankly, the two of them should have a show and almost don't need Meyers to be there at all...?

Anyway: canny first-day casting, Meyers. I'm not sure anyone will be as intersted in your sitdown with Sophia Bush.