The Thanksgiving holiday is known for familiar staples, from mealtime side dishes and desserts like stuffing and pumpkin pie to the massive shopping event that takes place on Black Friday. But especially this year, Thanksgiving also comes with the dread of seeing family members with whom we don’t always see eye-to-eye. Perhaps that expectation of tension is what makes one recent(ish) late-night tradition such a welcome balm.
Over on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, the long-running host doesn’t just welcome airing a fresh episode on Thanksgiving Day (albeit taped the night before)—he asks his own family to join him, including his dad Larry, mom Hilary, and brother Josh. Making Late Night‘s Thanksgiving episodes a literal family affair is yet another way Meyers connects with his viewers in a more intimate way than many of his late-night cohorts (past and present).
Though some of the show’s Thanksgiving episode traditions have changed over time, the notion of having Meyers’ family members as the main guests on Thanksgiving extends back to the show’s first season in 2014.
That the familial chemistry is so present as early as that inaugural episode’s “How Well Do You Know Your Meyers?” segment is unsurprising (they are family, after all). But what’s notable is how instantly that charm carries over to make those of us watching at home genuinely enjoy spending time with this family (perhaps over our own squabbling clans). Where it can sometimes be painful or awkward to sit through another family’s in-jokes, the Meyers family’s dynamic is somehow universal enough to be enjoyed by complete strangers.
It’s also not unheard of for the Meyers to be joined by additional family members. In the 2018 Thanksgiving episode, they indulged in a different classic, The Newlywed Game, where they were joined by Seth’s wife Alexi and her parents, with Josh serving as emcee.
Throughout this segment and others, the Meyers toe the line between ribbing each other, as when Josh mocks Seth for being unable to whistle, and playfully exposing edgier fault lines in their relationships.
Perhaps the thing that makes Late Night‘s Thanksgiving episodes most endearing is that, as a family, they boast the same streak of self-deprecation and self-awareness that’s baked into so many of the show’s other recurring segments.
In the 2016 Thanksgiving episode, during another edition of “How Well Do You Know Your Meyers?,” Seth introduced a phone-a-friend-style gag titled “Ask a Baze,” referring to the show’s head writer Alex Baze. When Seth asks Baze one of the hyper-specific questions about his family, Baze unloads with a spiky diatribe about how he has no idea what the answer is because “I didn’t grow up with you!” He then notes that the Meyers family “isn’t the House of Windsor” and that Seth is “too close” to his family “and it’s weird.”
The very nature of the annual Thanksgiving episodes is such that it essentially ends up tracking the lives of this quartet (especially Seth and Josh) through some major milestones.
In the 2021 Thanksgiving installment, Seth introduced viewers to his newborn daughter Adelaide. In 2023, the family celebrated Josh’s engagement; both his fiancée, McKenzie Rollins, and her mother were in the audience. (The couple tied the knot in October, so don’t be surprised to see some additional family members on this year’s episode.)
One of more relatable aspects of the Meyers family Thanksgiving episodes is that they balance the sweet and sentimental with the more tart aspects of family. Outside of the specific stories the family is clearly comfortable sharing on network television, very few viewers actually know the Meyers family. But it feels like we do.
It’s reminiscent in some ways of what David Letterman did on occasion during his late-night tenure when he incorporated his mother into segments on his show. The family dynamics can’t help but shine through.
Seth Meyers gets to be funny all year long. But when he opens up the proverbial doors to his family members, it goes a long way in solidifying him as the ultimate inheritor of the Late Night mantle from Letterman. Each year we get to learn more about the delightfully dysfunctional Meyers family in a way that complements breaking bread and wishbones with our own families.
Late Night’s Thanksgiving episode airs on NBC late Thursday night; it will stream the next day on Peacock.
