late-night hosts jimmy fallon and jimmy kimmel have regularly cranked out clips that generate millions of views on youtube over the last couple of years. then came the emergence of james corden and the web video juggernaut that is <u+201c>carpool karaoke.<u+201d> but competing host seth meyers <u+2014>not so much. yet during the 2016 election and the roller coaster campaign of president-elect donald trump, mr. meyers may have started to find his viral groove. over the past six months, nbc<u+2019>s <u+201c>late night with seth meyers<u+201d> saw its youtube subscriber base jump 53% to more than 757,000. his view numbers have exceeded 36 million a month, up 143% from six months ago, according to the analytics firm openslate. both were the biggest jumps among the many late-night hosts, a deep roster that includes once-a-week shows like tbs<u+2019>s <u+201c> full frontal with samantha bee <u+201d> and hbo<u+2019>s <u+201c> last week tonight with john oliver .<u+201d> throughout the intense campaign, mr. meyers, a former <u+201c>snl<u+201d> star, relentlessly hammered mr. trump with extended segments called <u+201c>a closer look,<u+201d> during which he took apart mr. trump<u+2019>s statements and policies ( trump lies about his birther past: a closer look ), as well as other aspects of the wild 2016 race ( hillary clinton was not entirely spared ). these clips regularly generate 1 million to 3 million views each. <u+201c>trump-as-punching-bag delivered the vast majority of seth<u+2019>s youtube views over the past year, and represent more than half of his most viewed videos of all time,<u+201d> said openslate chief executive mike henry. <u+201c>it will be interesting to follow this momentum into the trump-as-president phase.<u+201d> mr. meyers said the <u+201c>closer look<u+201d> franchise, which started in april of 2015, was not designed necessarily with youtube in mind. <u+201c>when we started our show, we already understood the value of being viral,<u+201d> he said. but he also realized his brand of cerebral talk naturally had <u+201c>less splashier things to it,<u+201d> he explained. he now frequently hears from fans about <u+201c>closer look<u+201d> clips, even though they don<u+2019>t necessarily watch his show. <u+201c>what<u+2019>s been nice is we really thought <u+2018>a closer look<u+2019> made for good television,<u+201d> mr. meyers said. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m not smart enough to plan this. it<u+2019>s been a nice byproduct. now we can build something [for the show] with [the potential for] next day virality.<u+201d> stephen colbert<u+2014>another early laggard in web video<u+2014>has also seen his subscriber base and view number surge of late. he now has over 1.7 million subscribers on youtube, up 43% versus 1.2 million back in june, and his monthly view numbers are now upward of 66 million a month. to be sure, mr. meyers<u+2019> videos still have a long way to go to be on the same playing field as the regular viral breakouts of his rivals. for example, nbc<u+2019>s <u+201c>the tonight show starring jimmy fallon<u+201d> and abc<u+2019>s <u+201c>jimmy kimmel live<u+201d> each produce comic bits that are tailor-made to be shared on social media, including mr. fallon<u+2019>s lip sync battles and celebrities reading mean tweets on mr. kimmel<u+2019>s show. and cbs <u+2019>s <u+201c> the late late show with james corden <u+201d> continues to land big stars like michelle obama and lady gaga to appear on his <u+201c>carpool karaoke<u+201d> segments. both mr. corden and mr. kimmel have over 8 million subscribers on youtube, and mr. fallon has more than 12 million. in october, mr. fallon generated over 192 million views on youtube alone, even as he has expanded his distribution to snapchat and facebook . mr. kimmel nearly generated 150 million views in october, according to openslate, while mr. corden exceeded 125 million views<u+2014>down a bit from a summer zenith when there were three <u+201c>carpool karaoke<u+201d> segments in one month. last month<u+2019>s lady gaga-starring karaoke clip has over 25 million views on youtube. of course, the ad money from these viral clips pales in comparison to tv. for a while, the kimmel, fallon and meyers youtube clips didn<u+2019>t carry any ads. both abc and nbc eventually inked deals for their late-night franchises to share ad revenue with youtube last year . this season, mr. meyers<u+2019> show has averaged roughly 1.5 million live or same-day viewers on tv, according to nielsen. mr. fallon<u+2014>whose show leads into mr. meyers<u+2019> 12:35 a.m. program<u+2014>leads the late-night race with over 3.1 million live or same day viewers, according to nielsen. going forward, mr. meyers is hopeful that <u+201c>a closer look<u+201d> can branch out beyond mr. trump, but he also realizes that it may be hard to get off the trump train for a while. <u+201c>whatever your politics are, this has been a most unconventional transition,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>but if we ever do stop talking about this election, we<u+2019>ll be ready.<u+201d> write to mike shields at mike.shields@wsj.com
nbc<u+2019>s seth meyers finds youtube groove with help from donald trump - wsj
mike shields