Late night is going to be a little quieter very soon.
In a coordinated move announced Wednesday, late-night shows produced out of New York City announced they would soon begin taping without live, in-studio audiences out of concerns over the spread of coronavirus.
The TBS program “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” which tapes once a week, will be the first to suspend in-studio audiences beginning Wednesday evening. It will be followed by HBO’s John Oliver-hosted “Last Week Tonight,” which will tape without an audience Sunday.
Beginning Monday, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and “The Daily Show,” which all air multiple times a week, will forgo audiences.
The decision was reached after ongoing conversations between producers of the shows and in an effort to halt transmission of the novel coronavirus, which on Wednesday was designated a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
In its announcement, CBS noted that there were no developments at the Ed Sullivan Theater, where “The Late Show” is taped, to cause concern for anyone who has attended the show in recent weeks. Likewise, Comedy Central said, “There have been no developments at ‘The Daily Show’s’ studio to cause concern for audience members.”
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