Jerry Seinfeld exposes the tricks of late-night TV on Late Night, wants no part

On Tuesday, Jerry Seinfeld made his first appearance on Late Night, and he told Seth Meyers he was there for only two reasons. "Dave's gone, Jay's gone, Johnny's dead — I'm auditioning other shows," he said, suggesting that Late Night could become his go-to late-night destination if everything went right. The second reason was less flattering: The Late Night producers hounded him until he agreed to come on.

But he refused to do a pre-interview. "Do you know what a pre-interview is?" Seinfeld asked the audience. "Here's how a talk show works." Before a guest comes on, the producers sit down and get a sense of what the guest wants to talk about, and what pre-arranged jokes the host can set up — like that story about the star's Mexican vacation. "It's all totally phony," Seinfeld explained, which is fine "if you're a new, young comic, or you're an actor or actress with nothing." But if Meyers wants to be a talk show host, "I think you should do the work," he added.

Then Seinfeld got frank: "Why should I have to do a pre-interview? You want me here. I don't want to be here." Meyers rolled with the punches pretty admirably. If you watch the second part of the interview, Seinfeld was a little less frank, telling Meyers "I've really enjoyed being on the show, but I am looking at other shows." Hear that, Colbert? Peter Weber

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