In the world of late-night television, Jay Leno stood for something rare: balance. He made jokes about both parties, poked fun at the absurdities of power no matter who held it, and understood a basic truth that today's late-night elites have forgotten—Americans tune in for comedy, not lectures.
Late-night TV used to be about laughs — not lectures.@jayleno tells us why he never shared his political opinions on The Tonight Show, and why he thinks today’s hosts are losing half of America by doing so. pic.twitter.com/dEvhjICdyC
— Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute (@RonaldReagan) July 22, 2025
Stephen Colbert’s "Late Show" being abruptly canceled is not a tragedy. It’s a long-overdue correction.
For years, Colbert abandoned the roots of comedy and transformed his platform into a smug, left-wing sermon series. His nightly monologues weren’t aimed at poking fun at the powerful across the board—they were designed to flatter the sensibilities of progressive elites while sneering at half the country. Whether it was mocking conservative values, vilifying Donald Trump every night like clockwork, or treating middle America with open contempt, Colbert’s show was more MSNBC after dark than it was any form of actual entertainment.
Jay Leno, ever the pro, warned about this very trap. In a recent interview, he explained: “Why shoot for half an audience?” He’s absolutely right. When late-night shows became obsessed with “resistance” politics, they made a mistake: they assumed everyone outside the Los Angeles and New York media bubble either didn’t matter or didn’t exist.
🎤 Jay Leno absolutely nails it 🎤
— Philip Couper (@P_Couper) July 28, 2025
In a recent interview with Fox News, the late night legend called out CBS for axing The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and more importantly, he took aim at what comedy has now become.
“I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular… pic.twitter.com/SPRn4DtWwN
“I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular group,” Leno said, slamming the rise of hyper partisan comedy that “cozies up” to one side of politics and shuts out the rest.
Leno went further: “I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture.” And again—on point. Comedy, when done well, brings people together. It laughs with people, not just at them. Leno’s era understood that politics should be roasted from all sides, not used as a blunt-force weapon to push a narrative. But Colbert didn’t just push a narrative—he married it. He built a brand on deriding one political figure and treating every left-wing talking point as gospel.
And that’s why his cancellation isn’t surprising. It’s earned.
CBS may claim it was about ratings or business realignment, but the writing was on the wall. Colbert had been making enemies—not just on the right, but within the corporate structure of CBS itself. His repeated shots at CBS’s parent company, his inflammatory comments about Trump and the GOP merger cases, and his constant politicization of content made him a liability.
Leno’s point is straightforward: Comedy has lost its soul because it has picked a side.
Where Leno would get hate mail from both conservatives and liberals—proof he was doing something right—Colbert lived in a feedback loop. His audience cheered when he mocked Trump, booed when a joke didn’t hit the proper progressive tone, and treated ideological conformity as a laugh track. It wasn’t satire. It was preaching to the choir.
The left-wing media will criticize CBS's decision to cancel Colbert’s show as the “end of truth-telling,” but the reality is simpler: he stopped being funny. Americans are tired of being talked down to, tired of Hollywood moralizing, and especially tired of entertainment being hijacked by politics.
Leno, despite being out of the game for a decade, understands the American audience better than any current host. He saw the shift happen in real time—the moment comedy stopped being about common humanity and started being about partisan applause lines. That’s the kind of across-the-board humor that actually made people laugh.
Now? Today’s late-night hosts treat conservatives as villains and Democrats as saints. They don’t even attempt fairness or humility. That’s why people are turning them off.
🚨 LOL! President Trump says JIMMY KIMMEL is next up to be sacked, and Jimmy Fallon shortly after
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 22, 2025
“It's really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!” 🤣
The King of Late Night is @GregGutfeld, and it ain’t even close! pic.twitter.com/MnDqPxkqzm
Colbert’s cancellation shouldn’t be lamented. It should be studied as a cautionary tale. If you want to serve the public, serve all of them. Don’t mock half your country, then whine when they stop watching. Don’t turn comedy into activism, then act shocked when your influence fades.
Jay Leno was right. Late-night hosts should stop trying to be political influencers and start being what they were hired to be: funny.
