Taylor Swift will be doing a lot of late-night promotion for next week’s “Red (Taylor’s Version)” album, and so far she’s keeping it all in the NBC family. Social media posts Thursday from Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers or their shows revealed that Swift will be appearing back-to-back with both hosts on the night of Nov. 11, right around the hour “Red” is being digitally launched.
The sequential appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night” will precede by two nights Swift’s already announced appearance as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” Nov. 13.
Twin appearances on both of NBC’s late-night weeknight shows are highly unusual.
Fallon let the news out with an Instagram post that lasted 13 seconds, showing him posting a card with her name on the lineup on a bulletin board of guests… then replacing the clear thumbtack with a red one, as the strains of “Trouble! Trouble!” (from the “Red” song “I Knew You Were Trouble”) came up.
11/11 @taylorswift13 pic.twitter/YUoXMoKS1G
— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) November 4, 2021
Meyers’ team took a more straightforward approach, tweeting, “See you in one week, @taylorswift13!”
See you in one week, @taylorswift13! pic.twitter/ekhCVt9sji
— Late Night with Seth Meyers (@LateNightSeth) November 4, 2021
It’s “SNL” that remains theoretically luckiest by having its air date land on the 13th, a number that’s been superstitiously fetishized since the beginning of Swift’s career.
The real numerical question may have to do with “10,” though — that is, whether “SNL” will allot the singer airtime to do the long-sought-after 10-minute version of fan-favorite “All Too Well” that is the most anticipated of the bonus tracks on the new release.
If NBC is stingy about allowing the possibly longest musical performance in the show’s history, there will be literally dozens of other songs to choose from. Although the first 21 tracks on “Red (Taylor’s Version)” will be note-for-note remakes of songs released by her former label, Big Machine, on or around the original 2012 “Red” album, there are nine additional numbers labeled “From the Vault” that haven’t been previously recorded by Swift. These include previously unheard songs with featured appearances by Phoebe Bridgers, Chris Stapleton and Ed Sheeran.
The only problem NBC may face in drawing Swifties as viewers next Thursday night is that the lengthy album lands at midnight ET — right as Fallon is going into the second half of his show, followed by Meyers going into the beginning of his — a time at which the most hardcore fans may be so deep into scouring lyrics the unheard songs, it’ll be hard for some to tear themselves away to watch Swift talk about them.
Even though much of the material on the new release consists of soundalike recordings, explicitly recorded with the intent of superseding the previous Big Machine versions on streaming services and in fans’ catalogs, the copious bonus songs are what are expected to make the album one of the blockbusters of the holiday season.
