How much longer can late night fare like SNL and The Late Show last?

After watching the first two horrendously bad SNL episodes, and unable to get through more than a few moments of Colbert, Meyers, Kimmel and Fallon, I wonder how much longer these late night shows can stagger on.

I remember a media commentator - fascinated by the life and career of Jerry Lewis - observing years before the great but controversial comedian's death that spite was the only thing keeping him alive.

David Spade recently had a short-lived late night program in the grand old spirit of making fun of EVERYONE, but that died during the early stages of the COVID crisis.

Do young people watch shows like SNL and Late Night?

Or are they aimed at a specific demographic of older viewers with a very narrow worldview which, by formal decree or tacit understanding, can simply never be challenged or addressed in any way?

I find it stultifying, brain-dead and the very antithesis of comedy; will it go the way of most things Boomer, or will it somehow hold on?

Broadening and deepening of perspective - an ethos of "if it's smart/funny, it goes on" - seems entirely out of the question...

 

We have much more options to fill our tv watching time..
The Tonight Show was a staple of viewing for many decades ..
It has been dying over years same with late show and all other mentioned
The late shows are a 1960 and 1980's models a lot have changed since then.
SNL should be cancelled as others.. go back to 11.30 movies or tv movie of week..
Nobody I know watches in late shows anymore..
It's like music radio stations it no longer has place in the world.

 

I've been wondering the same thing about woman's daytime chat shows, since Art Linkletter's House Party paved the way for what we have now (which is basically the same show, whether it's Drew Barrymore, Kelly Clarkson or Regis-and-pick-your-poison), going on under different title cards for all your life.

But as it has been for generations, as you can see by the round-robin of the same show replaced with different heads, it's not about the viewer, it's about the showrunner. And it's not about the showrunner, it's about who wants the showrunner to put somebody in that slot for some reason. And, I'm guessing, the reason has more to do with marketing than audience. And these personalities can do a lifestyle-and-marketing connection to the viewer that neither a daytime drama or a gameshow can do.

Late-night couch-and-guest chat shows probably fill a lot of the same needs, for a different demographic.

 

While you're at it, look at the universality of the form as it seems to be a staple across the world, and ask yourself...do you really think Graham Norton is going anywhere...?

 

They're incredibly anachronistic, but unlike the old shows, their cultural bandwidth is startlingly narrow, which is the opposite of what you might expect.

 

I think if we get four more years of the current administration, late night comedy shows will be just FINE. There is just TOO MUCH material to mine from.

 

Nothing on TV gets the ratings it once does, but I think people are still watching, they just aren't watching live. Most the segments from late night shows are all hitting 500k-1m+ hits on youtube. The quickest of google searches showed

"The late-night program notched an average of 3.6 million viewers throughout the entire season. The show was also the most-watched among adults between the ages of 25 and 54, according to CBS citing data from the Nielsen live “Most Current” ratings through the week of May 15, 2020.

Colbert topped NBC's “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" by more than 1.55 million viewers, according to CBS. Although both shows tied in gaining the attention of the 18-49 age group"

This does not count the hits on Youtube, and I assume it also does not count those that are watching the next day on Hulu or other streaming apps. They might not have quite the relevance that they had in previous decades, but it looks like they are still doing well.

There are so much media to capture our attention on top of the fact there are about 10 late-night talk shows to tune into. I don't love most of the current hosts and have a personal dislike of Fallon, but I still follow Conan regularly.

 

Why do people continue to enjoy stuff that I don't like?

see also: When will the Simpsons end?

 

I really can't agree.

In prior times, presumably less diverse, the rule was that you made fun of whoever was in charge.

Now it's brazenly selective, and that becomes cultish quickly rather than comedic.

It's rarely if ever funny, and always chilling.

 

Great points; I guess what was once must-see viewing (SNL) is now a niche, but one that DOES attract younger viewers.

The last 20-something I talked to said that they never watch SNL...

And Conan is old school; he had Sarah Silverman on as Hitler, and it was genius. (Hitler was worried that the comparisons to Trump were hurting his image...)

 

I assumed these shows are for the brain-dead.

 

I cannot stand Jimmy Fallon. I only watch him out of spite.

 

Great contribution...

 

Ha!

The sleepy/half-awake to be sure!

 

Bring back Phil Donohue!

 

His monologue on the lion was genuinely touching, and an appearance by Miley was classic, but in general, cringetastic.

 

A dope, but a gentle dope; the Mr. Rogers of daytime talk shows.

 

Ah! The old "They NEVER poked fun at that so-called Hawaiian like they do to our Gold-Leafed savior!" argument.

 

And, extreme closeups of hosts from home isn't nearly as distracting on television as it would be in, say, a movie theater...

 

My last stop before bed is now at the compyooter, watching YouTube. That's where Johnny Carson's primary audience used to be: sleepy-eyed 9-to-5'ers, looking to close out their day watching some friends on a couch. It's how the television made it to the bedroom in the first place: "a radio with visuals". Now with the immense variety of available nuggets of content at my disposal (can I call them "cartoons"? That's what I used to call MTV vids, in the same context...), I can either graze my way to bedtime, or learn, edificate and engage my thought processes until sleep causes them to fail me. And, if I want I can do that in bed as well, with a tablet in my lap.

Last evening I put YouTube on through the app in my Oppo downstairs, and was devastated on how complicated the loading was, how patient I had to be to get through a commercial, avoid opt-in come-ons, and how clunky the search was with a remote in my hand. I can't imagine people having the serenity to do that in front of a teevee in their bedrooms, no way. The app on my Samsung upstairs in the living room, is not that complicated and frustrating, fortunately. For a casual audience who are not video savants or computer wizards, YouTube's greed to expand is literally shooting them in their own feet.

 

I noticed SNL has gone back to the studio, with audience and everything. Did I miss the end of the pandemic?

 

as long as there are snowflakes in the sky...

 

that's funny!

 

The Tonite Show's problem is the same that affects Saturday Night Live: the sense that their management is obsessed by their own importance and wordwide significance.

In the Tonight Show's case, it suffers from the same thing Jay Leno did so effortlessly: produce something that looks like comedy, with a constant eye on not offending anybody: take every tooth out of every joke, and be even-handed with your targets even if there is no reasonable equivocation there. Avoid the elephant in the room by commenting on the draperies instead. I always got the sense that Johnny did that because he meant it; Leno did because he was listening to marketing strategists. Fallon because he understands the wisdom and the serendipity of a paycheck.

 

Comparing these current times to anything in the past is choosing to be ..

You can fill in the blanks