Live on tape from the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, it's Stephen Culled Bay!

This is your brother in law, I'm a fan, keep you safe, yeah?

Welcome to the late show, I'm your host, Stephen Culled Bayer, tonight!

Now, tonight, you know we always talk about the big story, that's what we do, we talk about the big story, people talk about it all day, then we talk about it at night, okay?

But here's the thing, the big story might not be a big story, everybody's talking about it, but nobody really knows what the story is really about, because it's all Omicron, Omicron, this Omicron, that, we don't really understand if it's going to change anything, we don't know Omicron, about Omicron, so far Omicron appears to be milder and more infectious than Delta, and that maybe be happening because according to a new study, it shares genetic code with the common cold,

this pandemic has gone on so long, we're officially in the remix stage, the next variant is going to be COVID featuring shingles the Skrillex mix!

Scientists believe the gene swap may have occurred after a single person was simultaneously infected by coronavirus and the common cold, well that's what you get when you don't sing happy birthday twice.

Now that person's identity hasn't been confirmed, the rumor has it, that it's this man, Omicron spreads fast, this we do know, one of the first US cases was a Minnesota man who attended an anime convention in Manhattan, of the 30 people he went with, 15 of his friends also have COVID-19, that is shocking!

People who go to anime conventions have friends, I thought, I got a little thing, I thought they just had Sailor Moon body pillows, there's also a surge in COVID classic, the US is averaging 100,000 cases of coronavirus a day, and not all of those are on land, we just learned that a cruise ship disembarked in New Orleans with at least 17 COVID cases, including 18,000 cases,

including a probable Omicron infection, we're back at cruise ship COVID, what's next, a new season of Tiger King, there's what?!

Cruise line claims they tried to avoid spread into the community, but one passenger seems to have been taken by surprise.

We didn't hear of this until we kind of heard you talking a second ago, yeah it would have been nice to have known, you know, we would have taken maybe a few more precautions.

He heard it from the reporter, the guys breaking important life news to him, sir, how do you feel about being exposed to coronavirus and follow up your wife left you, took the kids and called you a selfish lover, your thoughts?

Well I would like to have known that I was a selfish lover.

There is some good news, thanks to fear of the new variant, demand for vaccines is spiked, and here in New York the lines may be getting longer thanks to an announcement from outgoing New York mayor Bill de Blasio seen here on day three of being left hanging.

Nothing, sirs, I know I'm tall, but no one, my arm is getting off tangly.

De Blasio unveiled New York City's first in the nation vaccine mandate for private companies, which will apply to 184,000 businesses, that's the full range of New York businesses.

From famous original raised pizza to original raise famous pizza right.

That's not the only new rule for the city, with shots now available for kids, all children between the ages of five and eleven will need proof of at least one shot before entering restaurants, theaters and gyms.

That's great, we have got to make it safe for our six year olds to hit the leg press.

Come on, Madison, you think Zuma from Paw Patrol gives up in 350 LBs, goals or dreams, standards or accountability, now squat my man.

You got to be tough, you got to be tough.

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