Seth Meyers was amazed when 19-year-old Taylor Swift pitched a monologue to him and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels when she hosted the show for the first time — and he still remembers it to this day.
“It really speaks to what a force of nature she is and the depths of her talent,” Meyers, 49, said about Swift, now 33, during the Monday, October 30, episode of Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show.
Meyers, who served as the show’s head writer and anchor of “Weekend Update” for eight seasons, said “nobody gave [Swift] a manual on how to” pitch. “And yet, she came to us and said, ‘I wrote a song for the opening monologue,’” he recalled. “And I remember saying, ‘Oh God, that’s great.’ And she said, ‘Can I play it for you?’”
Swift has appeared on Saturday Night Live seven times. During her November 2009 debut appearance, she performed her multi-platinum hit “You Belong with Me” from her second album, Fearless, and “Untouchable” from the Fearless: Platinum Edition. (Both songs have since been rerecorded on 2021’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) as part of Swift’s mission to regain ownership of her masters.)
Earlier this month, Swift made a surprise appearance on the season 49 SNL premiere to introduce Ice Spice’s performance. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — whom Swift has been linked to since September — had a cameo in a sketch about the NFL’s nonstop coverage of Swift attending his games.
Recalling Swift’s 2009 monologue in Michaels’ office, Meyers said on Monday, “She sings this song which is not only a beautiful song by a beautiful singer. It’s a perfect SNL monologue, fully formed. And it was, to this day, I’ve sort of never had a moment like that where someone brings you a fully gift-wrapped present and it’s exactly what you needed it to be.”
Stern, 69, was also impressed by Swift’s ambitious move.
“Can you imagine having the balls to walk into Lorne Michaels’ office and your office, and you guys are all comfortable and know each other and standing there vulnerable with a guitar,” Stern said.
Meyers remembered that Swift’s presentation was far superior to what he and his staff had written for her for the show, and he imagined making that confession to her.
“So you know how much f—king worse it was,” he said. “Not only is your song great. But you can’t even imagine how s–tty what we were doing for you is compared to how great what you did for yourself.”
Meyers worked on SNL from 2001 to 2014 before beginning to host Late Night With Seth Meyers. He returned to host SNL in 2018 and realized just how challenging it was.
“Insane,” Meyers said of the hosting duties. “Here’s what’s even crazier. I work on that show for 12.5 years. And then I think about three years after I left, I went back and I hosted for the first time. And if you ask me what it was like to host, I would tell you today — and I worked there longer than almost anybody — Howard, no one tells you anything. Like, even I, who had worked there, couldn’t believe how it works.”
While looking back at the daunting task of hosting SNL, Meyers confessed to owing many past hosts an apology.
“I retroactively felt so guilty about how I treated hosts for my time there,” Meyers continued. “I was always very polite to hosts, I always wanted them to score. I felt like if they won, we won. But hosts would sometimes say to me, ‘I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be doing in this sketch.’ And in my head, what I wanted to say was, ‘Just f–king do it. Like, just do it.’”
His perspective changed when he finally tried his hand at hosting. “I realized there were a few times that I was thinking, ‘I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do in this sketch,” he said.
