Late Night Producer and Iowa Grad Carves Out Unconventional Career Path

PHOTO: Lloyd Bishop Producer Eric Leiderman on the set of Late Night with Seth Meyers

Eric Leiderman (99BA) had everyone in the room—including comedian Kathy Griffin—roaring with laughter during an animated speech about his sister in November 2011 for her 40^th birthday party in New York. Griffin was so entertained that she soon offered Leiderman a job to lead the writers room on her late-night talk show.

PHOTO: Lloyd Bishop

“That’s the gig that kicked it off for me at the showrunner level,” says Leiderman, who worked in various freelance TV production roles for 12 years, including on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Impractical Jokers, before that breakthrough. “That’s exactly how this business works. Someone believes in you and decides that you’re ready.”

A couple years later, in December 2013, Leiderman earned the belief of comedian Seth Meyers. Soon after that meeting, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels was interviewing Leiderman for a job on Late Night with Seth Meyers when Meyers entered the room unannounced and endorsed Leiderman for the role. Leiderman got a job as producer for the soon-to-premiere late-night talk show, which began its 13^th season this month.

Leiderman credits his time at Iowa for helping him learn how to juggle the many responsibilities of a television producer. Beyond his classwork, the former communication studies major worked for two record stores in the ped mall, as a DJ for the student-run radio station KRUI, and as a drummer for several Iowa City bands that he also promoted to help them land gigs.

PHOTO: Lloyd Bishop From the stage floor, Eric Leiderman is in communication with the control room via Slack and headset during a live show.

Leiderman says former UI professors Barbara Welch Breder (84PhD) and Jay Holstein acted as role models. “I was so inspired by these professors who had real conviction about what they were teaching and their place in the world,” he says. “That gave me the confidence to look inward and realize I had a lot of the tools ready to go and just needed to guide them.”

Drawn to both television and music after graduation, Leiderman pursued opportunities in both, which prepared him to co-run Late Night with Seth Meyers. Leiderman manages creative decisions for the show’s social media platforms and ensures the show and its sponsors are properly represented when ads are integrated into sketches. The Chicago native also oversees aspects of post-production, network promotions, and episode timing to determine where edits are needed to meet a 42-minute run time.

PHOTO COURTESY ERIC LEIDERMAN

For the first 10 years of the show, Leiderman managed the house band led by comedian and musician Fred Armisen. Armisen’s busy work schedule forced Leiderman to find a replacement on drums, so he created a rotating drummer program. Throughout its run, Leiderman chose more than 250 drummers from all musical genres—ranging from Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron to Paul McCartney’s Abe Laboriel Jr.—for weeklong gigs. Across all of Leiderman’s responsibilities, he strives to match the show’s tone to the “straight-shooting, classy” nature of Meyers and find a balance that keeps all stakeholders happy.

This fall, Leiderman will return to the UI campus for a public talk to share how embracing multiple pathways has led him to long-term success in an unpredictable field.

“[The entertainment industry] is a very uncertain place, and there is no path forward where there’s any guarantee of anything,” says Leiderman. “There’s luck, timing, and talent, and the university really prepped me to lean into those.”

PHOTO COURTESY Eric Leiderman Eric Leiderman has played in numerous bands, including Pearl, which toured with Velvet Revolver and Meat Loaf.

A Day in the Life of Eric Leiderman

The UI graduate details a typical weekday on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

8 a.m. – Leiderman completes most morning tasks from home. He sends highlight clips from last night’s episode to the social media team, edits script copy, and reviews today’s show schedule. He also troubleshoots any new challenges or changes since last night. “You never know, a guest could have fallen out, or a news event happened the night before that we want to be more sensitive to.”

11 a.m. – Leiderman leads an all-department video meeting for a rundown of today and tomorrow’s shows. They review what’s planned for each guest, comedy pieces, and any material that needs to be pre-taped before the live show. “We might need an extra prop, or we might need to make a last-minute change on a guest or shoot a segment out of order. Of course, things can change throughout the day, but this gets everyone on the same page.”

Early afternoon – Leiderman attends more meetings, including:

• A semi-weekly sit-down with his digital team to discuss the digital content they’ll create for each guest as well as advance graphics, social media redesigns, and updates. They also plan content for any upcoming hiatuses for holidays or other production breaks.
• A meeting with NBC ad sales to discuss and approve brand partners along with any live ad integrations within the show.
• A meeting with the talent department, which books the guests, and the digital team to ensure they’re aligned on a creative approach to optimize the chances of guests interacting with the show’s social media and to generate the most compelling content for the show.

Mid-afternoon – Leiderman allows some time to complete a variety of tasks, including meeting with VIP audience members, teaching interns how to create a reel, reviewing the social media content plan for tonight’s guests, or looking at updates for episode graphics.

3 p.m. – Leiderman checks on any last-minute changes to the show, including arrival times for guests. “A Closer Look,” the flagship segment of the show, and comedy pieces tend to have the most time fluctuation. A late-breaking news piece may get added to “A Closer Look,” which can extend its segment time and alter guest segments. Leiderman updates the segment producers who may add or remove guest questions.

3:45 p.m. – Leiderman walks down to the studio where Late Night staff hobnob with publicists and visitors, as well as guests and their makeup and public relations teams. Any last-minute changes are made to cue cards near the stage, while updates to graphics or clips are relayed to the control room.

4 p.m. – It’s showtime! Show announcer Ron McClary kicks off the episode with his trademark opening line, “From 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, it’s Late Night with Seth Meyers!” From the stage floor, Leiderman is in communication with the control room via Slack and headset as Meyers takes the stage.

5 p.m. – The show ends, and Leiderman communicates how close they are to their allotted 42-minute run time. If the episode exceeds their time limit, he works with the segment producers and post-production department to find things to cut like a brief announcement or clip that ushers in a show act, a joke that didn’t resonate as well with the live audience, or part of a guest interview that wasn’t as strong. “We have to find a way to get that exact delivery time to the second,” says Leiderman, who also ensures the director and segment producers are communicating with post-production. “The team is so good and well-oiled after 12 years, it really runs itself at this point.”

6:37 p.m. – The episode is delivered to NBC for broadcast. “Once you put out an episode, you don’t worry or lament about it,” says Leiderman. “You just move on to the next day, and I think that’s the best. That why I love doing a daily [show] over a weekly. On to the next!”