Who is On Late Night Tonight in Comedy: Week of April 20, 2020 UPDATED!

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Who’s on Late Night Tonight in Comedy?

UPDATE:

As we suspected, Saturday Night Live has announced via social media that the show will return this weekend. Using the hashtag #SNLAtHome to announce its plan to air new content this Saturday, SNL will be doing its second remotely produced episode this Saturday, April 25th at 11:30pm et on NBC. It was two weeks earlier that SNL returned the first time after a forced hiatus when all TV shows and movies had to completely shutdown due to the pandemic.

This weekend’s Saturday Night Live will all be done from home with the cast and producers creating 90 minutes worth of new homemade content that will more than likely be virus-related. The first time SNL attempted this, the show had a surprise host who ended up being Coronavirus survivor Tom Hanks. He introduced the episode and gave a brief pep talk during his monologue, calling himself “America’s Dad.” That episode brought in the second highest ratings this season so far.

Like the first #SNLAtHome, no announcement has been made on who will be hosting from their own isolated location this Saturday.  Saturday Night Live at Home returns this Saturday night at 11:30pm et on NBC.

As the pandemic enters another week, our late night talk shows enter another full week of home-grown entertainment. However, producing content from home quarantine and interviewing guests via FaceTime, might be starting to wear thin on the network hosts. As for as this week is concerned, some shows are going back into repeats and some just aren’t giving up much information about what they’re doing at all.

Of course, it’s got to be a logistical headache to try to figure out who’s available to be a late night guest when a guest can’t leave his or her house. And that’s only if the interviews can even be done technically. Plus, there’s only so much comedy that can be written about being stuck at home. HBO’s Bill Maher is even trying to goad NBC’s Jimmy Fallon into a tree climbing contest. Yes. That’s actually a thing currently happening in late night television.

Here’s some updates in case you missed them.

Jimmy Kimmel is now taking a page from Conan O’Brien’s playbook. Jimmy Kimmel Live will now only be a half-hour long. That’s to make room for “Nightline” from ABC News to air at midnight and give nightly updates on the Coronavirus epidemic in America. So for the foreseeable future, JKL will pull a Team Coco and only have one main guest per evening during its 30 minute run time.

As for NBC’s Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon is going to continue his combo formula of featuring new material from his own quarantine home-base to air along with “Best of Fallon Moments.”

Stephen Colbert and CBS are also keeping a tight lip on their plans for this week. The network’s weekly press release announcing guests only included Monday. As for Tuesday through Thursday, all we know is that the plan is for new episodes of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert From Home to continue airing on CBS.

And over at Comedy Central, Trevor Noah will continue doing the Daily Social Distancing Show from his home. Plus, the first late night show lost to the pandemic happened at Comedy Central with the network announcing it will not be bringing Lights Out with David Spade back after the shutdown is over. Spade is still doing the home version of Lights Out on his YouTube channel for those that are interested.

It’s really too bad that CC is cancelling Lights Out with David Spade. The show was something completely different than anything else right now in late night. The host and the guests rarely mentioned Donald Trump. The show was more interested in the Kardashian house than the White House. And it was the only place in late night where you could hear more about Joe Exotic than Joe Biden.

Lights Out was also a great showcase for young comedians as well as cagey veterans to put their comedy and personalities on full display. Comedians including Tim Dillon, Christina Pazsitzky, Liza Treyger, Brad Williams, Nikki Glaser, Bert Kreischer, Moshe Kasher and Chris Franjola were all becoming Lights Out regulars. And with great names like Colin Quinn, Dave Attell, Ron Funches, Kevin Nealon, Fortune Feimster and Pete Holmes to name a few, stopping by to skewer the pop culture headlines of the day, it all made this a very funny and very necessary show in late night. Lights Out with David Spade, we hardly knew ye.

Looking at the highlights this week, we’re gonna change it up a little and look at the reruns first. That’s just the kind of topsy-turvy world we’re living in now.

Seth Meyers is taking a break from trying to do a show from home. Late Night is in repeats this week, but it’s reruns with a theme. Late Night with Seth Meyers will be airing the “Best of Second Chance Theatre” each night this week. This is a bit that Seth Meyers introduced that gives sketches that were rejected by Saturday Night Live when he was the a writer and cast member there a chance to finally see the light of day.

Considering that Seth Meyers was at SNL for 13 years, he should have a lot of rejected sketches to choose from the Saturday Night Live dumpster. Some of the “Second Chance Theatre” sketches we’ll see this week on reruns of Late Night include “Juggling Flyer“, “Griff Banks the Sensitive Bully” and Will Forte as “Jennjamin Franklin.”

Some of Seth Meyers’ pals from his SNL days will be appearing on Late Night to be part of the “Second Chance Theatre” players. In addition to Will Forte, other former SNL cast members on Late Night this week include Fred Armisen, Vanessa Bayer, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg who will be on Wednesday’s Late Night repeat along with his partners from The Lonely Island comedy trio, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer.

Other highlights this week in late night include some great comedy stars who will be appearing on talk shows from their own isolation locations.

On Monday, Melissa McCarthy will be speaking camera-to-camera with Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show. Melissa had just returned to television before the pandemic hit. She’s taken over as the host of “Little Big Shots“, the kids talent show that was hosted by Steve Harvey for its first 3 seasons.

Also in a non-comedy highlight, Stephen Colbert has a performance by Willie Nelson and his two youngest kids, Lukas and Micah Nelson from their family home on Monday night. If you’re going to be socially distancing yourself with your adult children, it makes the time go faster if they’re talented.

Tuesday night, stay up late for some laughs on the Late Late Show. James Corden’s guest will be Ray Romano. Recently, Ray jumped back into the world of sitcoms when he made a guest appearance on Netflix’s reboot of “One Day at a Time“. Ray Romano played the a census taker in the season 4 premiere. Mike Royce, an exec producer on “One Day at a Time” was also a producer on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” so, it sounds like a favor was called in.

Looking at the weekend, Bill Maher is up a tree without an audience. Maybe we’ll find out on this Friday’s new episode of HBO’s Real Time from Bill’s backyard if Jimmy Fallon answered Bill’s tree climbing dare.

Then the following night, Saturday Night Live hasn’t announced what it’s planning on doing yet this coming weekend which makes us wonder if the producers, writers and cast may be plotting another remotely produced SNL this Saturday after running a repeat this past weekend. #SNLAtHome?

Stay tuned for updates. Also, stay at home, stay put and stay away from too many carbs. You don’t want to go back into the world all pudgy and bloated.

Monday on Late Night

  • The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah at 11pm on Comedy Central
  • Trevor Noah is on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert At Home at 11:30pm on CBS
  • Melissa McCarthy is on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:30pm on NBC
  • Bob Odenkirk is on Conan at 11pm on TBS
  • Vanessa Gonzalez is on A Little Late with Lilly Singh at 1:30am on NBC (REPEAT)
  • Will Forte is on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:30am on NBC (REPEAT)

Tuesday on Late Night

  • The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah at 11pm on Comedy Central
  • Ray Romano is on the Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:30am on CBS
  • Jason Sudeikis is on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:30am on NBC (REPEAT)
  • Aubrey Plaza is on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:30am on NBC (REPEAT)

Wednesday on Late Night

  • The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah at 11pm on Comedy Central
  • Andy Samberg is Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:30am on NBC (REPEAT)
  • Jorma Taccone is Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:30am on NBC (REPEAT)
  • Akiva Schaffer is Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:30am on NBC (REPEAT)
  • Pete Holmes is on A Little Late with Lilly Singh at 1:30am on NBC (REPEAT)
  • Rob Corddry is on A Little Late with Lilly Singh at 1:30am on NBC (REPEAT)

 Thursday on Late Night

  • The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah at 11pm on Comedy Central
  • Rhett & Link are on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon: At Home Edition at 11:30pm on NBC
  • Will Forte is on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:30am on NBC (REPEAT)

Friday on Late Night

  • New episode of Real Time with Bill Maher from Bill’s Backyard at 10pm on HBO
  • Pete Holmes is on the Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:30am on CBS (REPEAT)
  • Martin Freeman is on the Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:30am on CBS (REPEAT)
  • Nikki Glaser is on A Little Late with Lilly Singh at 1:30am on NBC (REPEAT)

Saturday Night Live

  • SNL At Home returns Saturday with a new episode at 11:30pm on NBC

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Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper