that assignment has been given to jay leno, wanda sikes, stephen colbert in the recent past. this year it's seth meyers, head writer for "saturday night live" and weekend update anchor. mr. meyers, why did you take this assignment? >> well, it's an honor to be asked, certainly, and when you look down the roster, people who have done it in the past, i'm incredibly flattered to be on that list now. i have heard it's a really hard room. brian williams contacted me immediately to warn me about the lion's den i was walking into. but as a comedian, you like those challenges so i'm looking forward to it. >> how do you start preparing for something like this? >> well, you know, fortunately, i have a job that's already something like this. we obviously follow politics and what's happening in the white house in our show as part of our daily routine. and as chance would have it, we had a couple of weeks off leading up to the event so mostly you sit around with your writers and try to figure out what would work in the room. you can watch old speeches and other others have done, what mate