Unfunny, Politicized Late-Night Comedy Shows Could Soon Go the Way of the Dodo Bird

Way back in the day, the Johnny Carson show was much-watch TV. His monologues were laugh-out-loud funny, his sketches—especially “Carnac the Magnificent”—were silly but often brilliant, and you never walked away feeling insulted. Jay Leno took over after Carson retired in 1992, and he was also reliably witty and rarely waded into the political waters. Many of my friends were David Letterman fans, especially in his early years, and although he was never my cup of tea, I admit to laughing at his top 10 lists and his penchant for hysterical stunts like throwing things like watermelons off the roof or wearing a Velcro suit.

But all that changed over time, and watching hosts like Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and the like is about as fun as getting your back waxed. Why? They are unapologetically political, and their left-leaning bias infects almost everything they do. HBO’s Bill Maher is interesting but confounding, while the new late-night king is Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld, who is something almost unheard of: a right-leading late-show comedian.

ABC’s Kimmel appears to realize that network late-night has lost its appeal:

In an interview this week, Jimmy Kimmel conceded that the end is nigh for late-night talk shows.
“I don’t know if there will be any late-night television shows on network TV in 10 years,” the “Jimmy Kimmel Live ” host said.
“Maybe there’ll be one but there won’t be a lot of them.”
Jimmy’s right. The culling has already commenced.

Good riddance. Yet another good thing destroyed by political capture. https://t.co/v9fvYpzvbn
— Senator Tim Whatley (no anti-dentites, please) (@senator_tim) August 18, 2024

New York Post entertainment critic Johnny Oleksinski wrote Saturday that we don’t need to reach for the Kleenex because most of the shows are basically drivel at this point:

After James Corden departed “The Late Late Show” in 2023, CBS didn’t kick off a dramatic “Late Shift”-style talent search of yesteryear — the network brass replaced it with a comedy game show called “After Midnight.”
Nobody shed a single tear.
As much as it pains me to say it, not only is Kimmel’s crystal ball sadly spot-on — but late-night TV should call it quits. None of it is any good anymore.
And that’s not a “back in my day!,” old-man-shakes-fist-at-cloud, “these crazy kids,” criticism, either. Exactly zero young people are watching NBC and CBS at 11:30 p.m.
Late night is now squarely aimed at 50-and-up MSNBC viewers who don’t mind skipping “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” and are content with Jimmy Fallon’s struggles to make eye contact. Viewers are probably doing the dishes.

These shows have never in history been such a tedious afterthought.

I couldn’t agree more.

The cull has begun with Corden not being replaced.

These shows are a far cry from their predecessors, like Leno, who appealed to a broad audience.

Now they’re become little more than cope for celebrity-obsessed leftist partisans. https://t.co/3WoVBIiMdz
— reedes (@reedes) August 17, 2024

Late-Night King Greg Gutfeld Signs Fresh Fox Deal, As His Ratings Blow Out Competition

Late-Night Comedy Is Dead—Woke 'Comedians' Embarrass Themselves Compared to Their Predecessors (VIP)

Guess what “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is doing this week? Airing from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. That should be a barrel full of laughs. The question is: when the current crop of mostly unfunny hosts moves on or is shoved aside for something that will get higher ratings, will anybody notice?

This was certainly funnier than a political convention: