Late-night talk shows are turning into tomorrow’s recaps, but the era isn’t over

The idea of ​​ending the evening with your favorite talk show is becoming a dying experience.

Last week, NBC announced that Jimmy Fallon’s talk show, which will run for 11 seasons, will air The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is downgraded from a five-night run to a four-night run. While there are some variations on the traditional talk show (such as Jon Stewart returning only once a week on THE Daily show), the formula has remained largely the same since the 1950s. It has always been coveted and fraught with drama over who tops the late-night ratings.

The American public has been laughing and raving about late-night television talk shows for more than 70 years. From early gems like the ever-charming Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on Taylor Tomlinson’s comedy game show After midnight, Evenings spent in front of the TV have been enjoyed for generations, providing plenty of laughter and guests.

However, with the rise of cord-cutters, the golden years of late night are clearly behind us. It’s no surprise that traditional broadcast formats are all on their way out—from sitcoms to traditional news to late-night talk shows. In honor of our friends in evening television, here are the top five reasons why late night as we know it is turning into a morning scroll:

Talk show audiences are aging

The stats speak for themselves: Under-49s prefer streaming. Maybe those of us who miss late-night talk shows are feeling nostalgic, or maybe we’re just getting older. When the median age of viewers watching your channel in prime time is 64.6, you’ve reached Law and Order ground. Dun Dun. In fact, the late-night format may work for now, but your audience is in its golden years. Unless young people resurrect a vintage format in a new medium, the talk show is nothing more than a pile of dust.

Late Night is an appointment viewing service and streamers are taking over, without appointments

The pace and success of talk shows depends largely on television viewing habits. Rob Guillermo, former Netflix executive and executive producer on Ali Wong: Baby Cobra And John Mulaney: The Child Returnstalks about how these habits have changed for the public.

“You watch the news and late at night you go to bed – you watch because it’s time “Viewers didn’t seek out the talk show; instead, it was on at the same time every day, providing a similar experience. The only choice you had to make was who was your ‘guy’ to watch.”

Guillermo also mentioned that the “exception” to this mostly male late-night lineup was comedian Chelsea Handler, whose show Chelsea lately made her the only woman to host a late-night talk show in the 2000s. However, when she made the jump to a streaming format on Netflix in 2016 with the platform’s first talk show ChelseaIt was cancelled after two seasons.

While primetime comedians are struggling to find their audience in the streaming world, audiences are rapidly migrating to streamers. In fact, between Q1 2022 and Q1 2024, smart TV viewers accessed streaming and linear content, dropping from 46% to 38%. Content viewing habits have changed. Now, viewers tend to tune into a streamer and identify and “find” what they want to watch, without an appointment required.

Viral Videos Killed the Talk Show Format

The talk show format is equally outdated. A source who has worked in talk shows for years confirmed that audiences no longer yearn for canned anecdotes and monologues. Instead, they want something more like a reality show.

For example, celebrities are lining up to promote their latest album or movie on shows like the sensational YouTube interview. The hottestHosted by Sean Evans, celebrities literally take over the hot seat where they’re honored with tasting spicy wings while selling their next big thing (you seriously can’t make this up).

A decade ago, talk shows began identifying the “bits” that were likely to go viral on YouTube and that generated the most engagement and relevance. As virality became the new validation model, the talk show format was adapted to speak to the audience.

In his recent podcast episode of The city, Matthew Belloni, former editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter and an entertainment lawyer, interviewed Seth Meyers, who hosts Late Night with Seth MeyersThey discussed audience shifts and budget cuts in late-night television and how young people under 25 are gravitating toward short-form content as they now view online interviews as The hottest a talk show rather than a traditional format. We are seeing an increase in alternative formats to the classic one-on-one interview: Alex Cooper’s uninhibited podcast Call her daddy (the most listened to podcast by a woman on Spotify), the trendy and sometimes controversial podcast from comedian Joe Rogan The Joe Rogan Experienceand Amelia Dimoldenberg’s wacky and flirtatious interviews with celebrities on her YouTube channel Chicken Store Date.

Younger viewers, on the other hand, are used to watching interview-type content that is less elaborate, overtly artificial and gives the impression of getting a more intimate glimpse of a celebrity.

Comedians don’t need talk show validation

The ecosystem of a comedian’s success has also evolved. Those old enough to remember are very aware of the validation a comedian got when Johnny Carson nodded after the routine for a comedian to join the couch. That type of validation is no longer relevant and it is now the people who decide WHO it’s funny.

Now the comedy game has changed. The game isn’t about landing late night and getting a sitcom (even though we don’t need another one Everybody loves Raymond Or Seinfeld?).

Instead, comedians are building their notoriety on social media and YouTube, gaining their audience and then monetizing their performances with live shows that, if successful, can spawn a traditional stand-up special. Comedians like Andrew Schulz and Matt Rife are prime examples of this new generation in how they’ve gone from short-form content fame to creating their own stand-up specials on big-name streamers.

Unfortunately, with the change in comedic strategy, the late-night usefulness is obsolete.

But… it’s not over until the money runs out

The most important thing to keep in mind is that Fallon’s episode count may be reduced, but it is not And late-night mainstays like Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert aren’t back either. Even Jon Stewart is back.

Why? Because their shows continue to make money and generate enough advertising revenue to justify the cost.

Talk show hosts also can’t translate their fame to the same level once they leave the format. As mentioned earlier, Chelsea Handler didn’t work on Netflix. The Conan O’Brien podcast kingpin gets a fraction of the engagement compared to his late-night audience. It’s examples like these that further reinforce Stewart’s famous words about his job as a talk show host: “When you leave the air, you disappear.”

Talk shows remain a major revenue source for these networks, however, and the tradeoff is that talk show hosts are now stepping up to the plate. Their profile as talk show hosts means they serve as a constant mascot for the network — Kimmel hosting the Oscars and sitting in front row seats, or Fallon hosting the Golden Globes.

So, for those of us old enough to care, enjoy our last days of bedtime talk shows. For the younger ones, consider yourself warned. When these shows disappear, know that you’ll be losing some seriously well-produced, celebrity-filled clips on your For You page, which means you’ll also be losing a lot of your scrolling entertainment.