Spring 2020
AT WORK WITH
By Becca Nadler
Late Night With Seth Meyers associate director Amy Mancini is usually busiest after three in the afternoon. "[It's] probably the most stressful hour and 15 minutes of my day," she says. "I can get anywhere from 100-plus graphics and 20-plus clips delivered into the control room, and then at 4:15, we rehearse with a live audience."
Before the rehearsal begins, Mancini will coordinate with the Late Night audio and graphics teams to get their questions answered and facilitate pushing the required elements into the graphics machine.
Some segments like "A Closer Look," which airs at least three times a week, have their own, slightly different requirements. "We don't normally rehearse 'A Closer Look'; that's very last-minute for me to get all of those elements," says Mancini of the popular segment. "You're waiting to get the most topical stuff on the show that night."
After the live rehearsal, "There's a lot of rewrites," she explains, which narrow down the number of required graphics to roughly "60 or 70 for the show." Before air, other clips are cut or redone, and Mancini ensures that all of the updates make it into the show taping at 6:30 p.m. "And then the next day we come back and do it all over again."