Keep in mind the late-night TV wars?
Rivers. Miller. Johnson. Chase. Corridor. Sajak. Thicke. Sykes.
Many tried to stroll in Johnny Carson’s sneakers. Few succeeded. Some, like Chevy Chase, known as it quits after six brutal weeks. Others, like Arsenio Corridor, burned brightly earlier than calling it a late-night profession.
Nonetheless, the format endured for many years with a couple of fortunate souls carving out crowds large enough to maintain them employed.
- Stephen Colbert
- Jon Stewart
- Jimmy Kimmel
- Seth Meyers
- Invoice Maher
- John Oliver
Why? They made cash, for starters. And, maybe extra importantly, they pushed the “proper” ideology of their reveals.
Now, as Hollywood continues to contract on a number of fronts, late-night reveals usually are not as sustainable as up to now.
Colbert discovered that out the exhausting approach in July. CBS introduced Colbert’s “Late Present” gig will finish in Could of 2026. Much more dramatic? Nobody is slated to interchange him. “The Late Present” will finish as Colbert indicators off.
The stunning half? Reviews stated the present was costing CBS roughly $40 million a 12 months. Why would any enterprise take that form of a fiscal drubbing within the first place?
That got here on the heels of “The Tonight Present” shrinking from 5 nights every week to 4, “Late Night time with Seth Meyers” shedding his home band and a number of other late-nighters shedding their gigs.
Interval.
Suppose Samantha Bee, Desus & Mero, Trevor Noah, James Corden and Amber Ruffin.
That, plus information that late-night TV revenues have plunged lately (together with their audiences), recommended Jimmy Kimmel’s prediction may come true sooner than he anticipated.
Late-night TV has a lot lower than 10 years left. This 12 months proved it.
Kimmel almost took his personal present down. The far-Left host recommended Charlie Kirk’s killer was a part of the MAGA motion with out proof or a shred of logic.
ABC/Disney despatched him the bench for every week earlier than he returned sans apology. He cried, once more, however not for deceptive viewers.
The Hollywood Left and the media rallied on Kimmel’s behalf, and he returned to the present to unfold extra misinformation.
In the meantime, Fox Information’ “Gutfeld” continued to out carry out the competitors on a smaller price range (and, admittedly, an earlier time schedule). That proves there’s a marketplace for a right-leaning audiences ignored, or insulted, by the present late-night panorama.
The longer term doesn’t look vivid for the late-night survivors. Kimmel’s contract ends in Could, however he’ll probably signal a brand new deal earlier than then. ABC proved it couldn’t power Kimmel to apologize for spewing misinformation, and Hollywood would stand up, en masse, anew if ABC/Disney let Kimmel stroll.
Does it matter if “Jimmy Kimmel Reside!” is likely to be shedding cash a la Colbert? It’s clear cash isn’t the deciding issue anymore given what CBS endured for a lot too lengthy.
It doesn’t finally matter. The late-night talkers confirmed their playing cards in 2025. They’re all components of the DNC at this level, typically actually.
Let’s not overlook each Kimmel and Colbert actually hosted fundraisers for President Joe Biden final 12 months, throwing away their objectivity and ignoring the chief’s apparent cognitive decline.
The final 12 months have proven, even to informal popular culture observers, that the late-night format is political to the bone. The laughs come second to the lectures.
Typically a distant second.
Colbert and Kimmel doubled down on their anti-GOP bias. Meyers stays a doggedly political power, and that was earlier than President Trump’s crude name for NBC to yank him and his TDS showcase.
Oliver continues to push progressive speaking factors from his HBO perch. Jimmy Fallon retains peddling a lite model of Resistance Comedy to a dwindling viewers. The one exception? The evening Fallon invited Greg Gutfeld on his NBC showcase.
The one actual change has been by way of “Actual Time with Invoice Maher.” The HBO discuss present presents a extra honest and balanced tackle liberal satire, though it hasn’t dramatically elevated the present’s scores. (His attain did develop in 2023 when CNN started rebroadcasting his HBO present).
Extra shoppers get late-night model content material from podcasts and YouTube-based reveals within the 2020s. Suppose “The Tim Dillon Present,” “The Boyscast” with Ryan Lengthy and Danny Polishchuk and Andrew Schulz’s “Flagrant.”
That’s the way forward for late-night-style programming. Kimmel and co. will quickly be its previous.