Late night hosts game out how America will change in the coronavirus pandemic

Late night hosts on the coronavirus pandemic
(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/The Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night, The Daily Show, The Tonight Show)

Stephen Colbert announced on Wednesday that due to the new coronavirus, The Late Show and all other late-night comedy shows will tape without a studio audience from Monday to the foreseeable future. "There are now over 1,000 cases of the coronavirus in the United States, and this afternoon the World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic," he said. Federal infectious disease experts are warning Americans to prepare for some serious lifestyle disruptions, he added, unhappily. "It's only March, and 2020 has done the impossible: Made me nostalgic for 2019."

Still, "daily life is changing," Colbert said, citing colleges kicking students out of the dorm and scrapped festivals. "The Council on Foreign Relations has canceled a coronavirus conference because of the coronavirus," he added. "In related news, the International Irony Festival is going ahead as planned."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.