Every late night show’s most watched YouTube video
By Matt Moore
Jon Snow at Seth’s dinner party
Upload date: April 7, 2015
View count: 17 million
In 2015, just about anything Game of Thrones related was going to get attention. Late Night with Seth Meyers capitalized and delivered a hilarious and original sketch with help from Jon Snow himself, Kit Harington.
Not surprisingly, the sketch seems like something Saturday Night Live would air as a pretaped bit. Seth Meyers returns to his sketch writing roots with the dinner party concept and gets a major assist from Harington and Late Night performers like John Lutz and Michelle Wolf. The clip holds a slight lead over Late Night‘s second most popular YouTube video: day drinking with Rihanna.
Meyers returned to the Game of Thrones/social event theme in another bit. In the sequel, Carice van Houten attends Meyers’ baby shower as Melisandre. That clip is the fifth most popular on Late Night‘s YouTube channel.
17 million may not look like many views stacked up against the other late night clips. But how many of them are original, scripted content like this? Yes, Harington’s participation makes the bit but the clever writing and performances by Meyers and company help the sketch stand out. And how many of the other shows see their monologues routinely hit one to two million views like “A Closer Look” does for Late Night?