Is late-night TV on the endangered list?
We’ve already seen multiple hosts leave the format: Desus and Mero, Trevor Noah, James Corden, Samantha Bee, Conan O’Brien and Hasan Minhaj rush to mind.
“The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” just shrank from five nights a week to four. “Late Night with Seth Meyers” can’t even afford a house band, a staple of the format.
Seth Meyers to Lose ‘Late Night’ Band in Budget Cuts https://t.co/sDERldtc7M
— Variety (@Variety) June 12, 2024
“The Late Late Show” faded to black following Corden’s 2023 exist, replaced by a comic-themed game show called “After Midnight.” Even the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” predicted the format could be gone in a decade.
Now, Fortune Magazine is sounding new alarms about late-night television.
… ad revenue is vanishing. In the first eight months of 2024, it fell 10 percent, according to media analytics firm Guideline, after an even bigger drop last year.
The publication reached out to Bill Carter, the author of “The War for Late Night,” to examine the current marketplace. Carter has been following this slice of the entertainment pie for decades. His views on the format shouldn’t be discounted.
He sounds less than optimistic about the format’s future.
“Late night was once a fabulous generator of profit,” because shows were cheaper to produce than primetime fare and featured abundant commercial time, explained Bill Carter, the author of several books on the topic.
“Profits the shows provide have shrunk toward non-existent.” [emphasis added]
Left unsaid in the Fortune article? The modern late-night TV show, with the exception of “Gutfeld!” leans to the Left.
Hard.
That chased countless viewers away. “Not ‘good riddance’ but ‘riddance,’” is how far-left host Jimmy Kimmel put it.
RELATED: LATE-NIGHT TV JUST GOT EVEN MORE LIBERAL
The shift also reduced what’s left of late-night comedy to variations of “Clapter.” That’s where comedians tell jokes that aren’t necessarily funny but align with the audience’s worldview.
That’s primarily what Colbert and co. deliver four nights a week. More recently, Colbert and Kimmel took part in DNC fundraisers, obliterating any semblance of neutrality.
Meanwhile, classic late-night comedy thrives on YouTube and podcasts. Adam Yenser’s “The Cancelled News” offers a funny riff on the classic monologue format.
Comedy podcasts offer more neutral political satire along with celebrity interviews that feel raw and honest. The typical late-night TV chat is just the opposite.
Forced. Brief. Predictable. Stale.
The format may have a curious lifeline.
Entertainment giants sometimes cling to content for ideological purposes. Case in point: It didn’t take a genius to see that a right-leaning late-night show would do well given the dearth of content aimed at Red State USA. Yet it took an existing conservative platform, Fox News, to give us “Gutfeld!”
Comedian Michael Loftus once tried to pitch a more balanced late-night show. He said TV executives recoiled at the notion.
Networks may swallow hard and accept potential losses from their late-night shows, knowing the content could change a few hearts and minds. At least that’s what they hope.
