The long, slow death of Late Night Talk

An aging format and a hard turn toward politics has made late night television "unfunny" and unwatchable

Aug 22, 2024

After some deliberation — driven by an exhaustive review of dozens of eye-bleeding video clips and a layman’s understanding of statistical analysis — I’ve come to an immutable conclusion:

Late-night television talk shows suck.

Frankly, that’s a benign assessment. The Oxford English Dictionary has more specific descriptors: insufferable … abysmal … snoozefest.

Whatever. There seems an almost unanimous agreement that late-night television is unwatchable. There are several tangential reasons for the decline in ratings (See: Viewer Choices and Ratings Freefall below). The ‘monolog-chat’ format creaks with age. Tone-wise, they are pandering and preachy. But the most common critique is this: They’re unfunny. And a nation of laugh-hungry consumers — especially those in the key age 18-54 demographic — are tuning out.

The trend continues downward in 2024.

The Last Men Standing

Kimmel… Colbert … Meyers … Fallon

Since the departure of James Corden’s Late-Late Show (CBS) two years ago, the last few still standing are The Tonight Show (NBC, Jimmy Fallon), The Late Show (CBS, Stephen Colbert), Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC), and Late Night (NBC, Seth Meyers).

On the periphery, there’s the return of Jon Stewart to The Daily Show (Comedy Central) and niche programs such as After Midnight (CBS, Taylor Tomlinson) and the strictly political Real Time (HBO, Bill Maher).

Stewart is back hosting The Daily Show after a nine-year hiatus. Because of Comedy Central’s limited reach and Stewart’s devoted but discriminating audience, the show is not in the same league as the networks. At least not yet. Too bad. Stewart is by far the funniest, most creative and talented of the bunch, most likely because he was an accomplished standup comic before launching his television career.

It feels like Conan O'Brien was the last likable and authentically funny late-night host, and with him leaving television and transitioning to podcasting we're left with a middling group of hosts who are driving late-night TV into irrelevance.

What in the name of Carnac has happened?

It’s tough to go into granular detail about why these shows are so distasteful. Generally, they suffer from the same problems, so criticism is fairly redundant. But here’s a glance at each.

Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel used to be the edgiest of the late-night hosts. At least in the absence of Stewart. He had some funny bits, in particular “Celebrity Mean Tweets,” his long-running gag feud with actor Matt Damon and clever pre-recorded sketches.

For example:

This was funny. But it was 11 years ago. Over the last few years, Kimmell turned political. He banked Left. Hard Left. What's so bizarre is that it's destroying his show. Why do late-night hosts believe that going the political route is good? Alienating half the country is not a winning strategy; the ratings reflect that it's not.

Kimmel is not the worst host. But in the past late-night television provided an escape from the nasty world of politics and ideological vomitus. The last thing viewers wanted was proselytizing and inculcation. Kimmel crams it down your throat every night.

Jimmy Fallon

There was a time when I liked Jimmy Fallon. Talk about a guy who fell off fast. It was clear that he used to put a legitimate effort into a show, and even people who don't like him admit the guy is a talent, especially as a Saturday Night Live player. He can play guitar, sing, and do peacocky impersonations.

But time has changed, Fallon hasn’t. His goofy, ADHD-addled persona doesn’t play well behind a desk at 11 p.m. I wouldn't care about that if the product was good, but it now is apparent he's going through the motions. The Celebrity Challenge bits and fawning “gee, whiz” interviews with entertainers are just plain exhausting.

He laughs at himself. A lot. The problem is, he’s the only one laughing.

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert is easily the worst offender of late night's downfall. When he was on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in the mid-2010s as Stewart’s No. 2, he was a master at satirizing the establishment and status quo. You would think he’d bring that edge to late-night television, but he didn't. In fact, he's completely clipped his own testicles.

Colbert is a cross between Ned Flanders (The Simpsons) and the angry man shaking his fist at the sky. He has become the very thing he used to mock — an unapologetic, fully captured partisan hack for the Democratic Party.

This cringy “Vax-Scene” bit (above) with Colbert and dancing syringes grooving to the song “Tequila” may be the worst thing ever broadcast on late-night television.

Seth Meyers

The former SNL player should have stuck with that show’s “Weekend Update,” where the show’s writers would give him good material. It seems Meyer’s crew never returned from last year’s writer’s strike.

So, like Kimmel and Colbert, Meyer abuses the “Orange Man Bad” trope. He offers nothing fresh or original.

Ratings Freefall

According to Late Nighter (Nielsen live-plus-7-day data), Colbert’s audience dropped 9 percent between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, including an 11 percent fall in the key 19-54 demographic. Kimmel’s total audience also fell 9 percent during the same period but dropped an eye-popping 28 percent between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024. Fallon had the same yearly 9 percent decline over last year as the other two and has lost 19 percent of its 19-54 audience.

Show .. Overall (Q1 2023-Q1 2024) .. Demographic 19-54

Late Show (Colbert) ……..….-9% …….. -11%

Kimmel Live ………………..…..-9% ….….. -28%

The Tonight Show (Fallon)..-9% …….. -19%

Source: Late Nighter/Nielsen

Interestingly, all of them have fallen behind Greg Gutfeld, whose 10 o’clock Gutfeld! show on Fox News is thrashing them all in the ratings. Gutfeld! ended the first quarter of 2024 with a 9 percent total market share and is the highest-rated show in all of late-night TV with almost 3 million nightly viewers.

Gutfeld’s schtick as the overaged smartass class clown resonates with Fox’s Republican/conservative viewership and surprisingly is popular within the 19-54 demo. He hosts an informal circle-talk format with four guests, mixing in cultural and political jokes (some land, some don’t) with canned comedy bits sprinkled between crossfire-style conversations with his visitors.

Admittedly, Gutfeld has the built-in advantage of a captive audience as part of Fox’s nightly lineup. His competitors are preceded by local news broadcasts. Yes, Gutfeld! is political, but that’s to be expected on a cable news network.

Viewer Choices

Best option: “Be funny!”

In an era of entertainment defined by streaming services, gaming and topical podcasts, consumers are provided with a wide variety of choices, making late-night talk shows seem like a thing of the past. Indeed, how can a format that has remained basically unchanged for seven decades remain relevant?

It could start by being funny.

Political satire, while poignant, ages like milk. One might not think silly bits like “Stupid Pet Tricks” (Letterman) or '“Headlines” (Jay Leno) would be the end-all-be-all of late-night comedy — but as it turns out, they may be.

Ultimately, late-night television isn't as good as it used to be because it can't be. We live in a different age, and late-night TV hasn't adjusted. The “monologue-canned bit-celebrity interview” formula has faded with age. No current late-night host has any relevancy; the real voices of television comedy today reside on Netflix and HBO/Max or podcasts and the still wildly popular “don’t-give-a-shit” world of South Park.

Late-night comedy is so sanitized. At this point, we are essentially devolving into "Idiocracy." By 2028, Colbert probably will be interviewing the president in a hazmat suit to prevent the spread of the common cold. It's too bad. Late-night TV should be a place for comic hosts to be free, not dogmatically political. Today, it's a place where risks either aren't allowed or aren't taken.

In the words of the late great Patrice O'Neal, "Comedy's hard, isn't it, motherfucker?"

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