Alate-night talk show is a genre oftalk show, originating in theUnited States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is characterized by spontaneousconversation, and for an effect of immediacy and intimacy as if the host were speaking directly to each member of the watching audience.[1][2][3] Late-night talk shows are also fundamentally shaped by the personality of the host.[1]
Thelate-night talk show format was popularized byJohnny Carson and his sidekickEd McMahon withThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson onNBC. Typically, the show's host conducts interviews from behind a desk, while a guest(s) is seated on a couch. Many late-night talk shows feature ahouse band which generally performs cover songs for the studio audience duringcommercial breaks and occasionally will back up a guest artist.
Late-night talk shows are a widely viewed format in the United States, but are not as prominent in other parts of the world. Shows that loosely resemble the format air in other countries, but generally air weekly as opposed to the nightly airings of those in the United States. They also generally air in time slots considered to beprime time in the United States.
Late-night talk shows had their genesis in early variety shows, a format that migrated to television from radio, where it had been the dominant form of light entertainment during most of theold-time radio era.The Pepsodent Show, which opened each weekly episode with hostBob Hope's rapid-fire, topical and often politicalobservational comedy, was a particularly important predecessor to the late-night format.[4]
Early television variety shows includedThe Ed Sullivan Show (originally known asToast of the Town), which aired onCBS Sunday nights from 1948 to 1971, andTexaco Star Theater withMilton Berle, which aired on NBC from 1948 to 1956. These shows aired once a week in evening time slots that would come to be known asprime time.
The first show to air in a late-night timeslot itself,Broadway Open House, aired on NBC in 1950 and ended a year later after hostJerry Lester left the show, a combination of frustration with being upstaged by his sidekickVirginia "Dagmar" Lewis, burnout from having to go through a large amount of material in a short time, and the lack of enough television sets in the United States to make television broadcasting in late nights viable. (Lester himself was a last-minute replacement host for up-and-coming 26-year-old comicDon Hornsby, whom Hope had recommended to NBC but who caught polio and died less than a week before the show began.) For the next season, the only late-night program on the networks was NBC'sNightcap, a preview of the next day's programming hosted byMary Kay Stearns.
The first late-night television talk show wasThe Faye Emerson Show, hosted by actressFaye Emerson. It began airing on CBS on October 24, 1949, in local East Coast markets before the network moved the 15-minute show, which regularly aired up to 11pm, nationwide in March 1950. In 1950, Emerson also hosted a similar show on NBC calledFifteen with Faye for about six months before committing the CBS show. Emerson's show was distinguished from her competition on NBC in that she was more openly political; Emerson, an avowedDemocrat, regularly interviewed political and intellectual figures on her show (among them Soviet leaderJoseph Stalin)[dubious –discuss] in addition to a smattering of vaudeville and variety acts.[5]
The first version ofThe Tonight Show,Tonight Starring Steve Allen, debuted in 1954 onNBC. The show created many modern talk show staples including an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, comedy bits, and musical performances; it also had some holdovers from the radio era, including a vocal group (Steve and Eydie, who went on to decades of success afterTonight) in addition to the house band, something that later late-night shows would abandon. By this point, theFederal Communications Commission had lifted a freeze on new television stations, which allowed new stations to appear across the country, and television set sales soon grew exponentially. As a result, unlikeBroadway Open House,Tonight proved to be a resounding success.
The success of the show led Allen to receive another show, entitledThe Steve Allen Show, which would compete withThe Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights. Meanwhile, hosting duties ofThe Tonight Show were split between Allen andErnie Kovacs; Kovacs had defected to NBC from his own late-night show on the then-crumblingDuMont Television Network. Both Allen and Kovacs departed fromTonight in 1957 in order to focus on Allen's Sunday night show. After the two left, the format changed to something similar toToday and was renamedTonight! America After Dark, hosted first byJack Lescoulie, and later by Al Collins, with interviews conducted byHy Gardner, and ahouse band led byLou Stein performing. The show was not popular, leading to many NBC affiliates dropping the show. The show returned to the original format that year and was renamedTonight Starring Jack Paar.
The even greater success of the show during Paar's hosting resulted in many NBC affiliates deciding to clear the show. He was noted for his conversational style, relatively high-brow interview guests, feuds with other media personalities (his animosity toward print journalists Ed Sullivan andWalter Winchell marked a power shift from print to television; Winchell's career never recovered from the damage), and mercurial personality. Paar quit the show in 1960 in a dispute over a censored joke, but was allowed to come back a month later. He permanently left the show in 1962, saying that he could not handle the workload ofThe Tonight Show (at the time, the show ran 105 minutes a day, five nights a week), and he moved to his own weekly prime-time show, which ran until 1965.
After Paar's departure, hosting duties were filled byGroucho Marx,Mort Sahl, and many others. Johnny Carson took over as host ofThe Tonight Show in 1962 and the show was renamedThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson streamlined the format of the show, focusing more on entertainment personalities, tweaking the monologue to feature shorter jokes, and emphasizing sketch comedy.Ed McMahon served as Carson's announcer, while from 1962 to 1966, the band was led bySkitch Henderson, who hired, among others,Doc Severinsen. When Henderson left, Milton DeLugg took over. Severinsen assumed the position in 1967 and served as bandleader with theNBC Orchestra. The show originated fromNBC Studios in New York City but, as part of Carson's shifting the show toward a more entertainment-oriented program, moved toBurbank, California, in 1972.
NBC's two other rivals during the early television era,CBS andABC, did not attempt any major forays into late-night television until the 1960s. ABC's first effort at the late-night TV race was hosted byLes Crane, which pioneered the controversialtabloid talk show format that would not become popular until two decades later. With most viewers not accustomed to the visceral conflict it entailed, Crane's show lasted only six months. Shorter still wasThe Las Vegas Show, aLas Vegas-based late-night show hosted byBill Dana that was the only offering of theUnited Network that ever made it to air (because that network only had a handful of affiliates, it also syndicated the program to CBS, ABC and independent stations); it, along with the network, only lasted five weeks in summer 1967.
Steve Allen himself returned to NBC late night in syndication twice in this time frame, first with a show that ran from 1962 to 1964 and then with a series that ran from 1968 to 1971. ABC added theJoey Bishop Show, withRegis Philbin as his sidekick, to its late-night lineup in 1967, employing a talk show format, in an attempt to compete against theTonight Show, which lasted until 1969. CBS went without late-night TV (the closest thing it would have to a late-night show was its late-prime-time variety showThe Danny Kaye Show from 1963 to 1967) until 1969, when it acquiredThe Merv Griffin Show from syndication; Griffin returned to syndication in 1972, and CBS would not air any further late-night talk shows until 1989, instead opting for reruns, lifestyle programs and, later, imported Canadian dramas in the time slot. By the 1960s, NBC had already cornered the market for late-night television viewing and would dominate the ratings for several decades in the future.
A number of restrictions on television networks that took effect in 1971, among them anationwide prohibition ontobacco advertising, therequirement that a portion of prime time be set aside for local stations, andrules prohibiting networks from also acting as syndicators, prompted NBC to extend its broadcast day by an additional hour with programming it hoped would recuperate some of its lost revenue.[6] In 1973, NBC launched two new programs: a concert series,The Midnight Special, that aired Friday nights, and a low-cost talk show,The Tomorrow Show, hosted byTom Snyder, that aired Mondays through Thursdays. Both shows aired immediately following Carson'sTonight Show at 1:00 a.m.ET.Tomorrow was different fromThe Tonight Show. For instance, the show originally featured no studio audience, while Snyder would conduct one-on-one interviews with a cigarette in hand. Snyder's guest list was eclectic and would sometimes include the intellectuals and cultural and artistic figures that Carson had long since abandoned. Carson's new contract in 1980 allowed him to cut the length of his show from 90 minutes to 60 minutes, and for a short time,Tomorrow was moved to an earlier timeslot, to fill the time gap left by Carson's move. NBC felt that Snyder's more conversational style would not bring in enough viewership in the earlier time slot, forcibly changed the show's format to resemble Carson's, and added gossip reporterRona Barrett as a co-host. The two did not get along and had an acrimonious relationship on and off the air. The agreement gave Carson's production company ownership of the timeslot followingTonight, which Carson Productions and NBC used to createLate Night with David Letterman on February 1, 1982. When NBC offered Snyder the time slot after Letterman, he refused it, having always been resentful of the forced change in format, andNBC News Overnight, a newscast, took the slot instead, some months afterTomorrow's final broadcast in 1982.
During his tenure as host ofThe Tonight Show, Carson became known asThe King of Late Night. While numerous hosts (Merv Griffin andDick Cavett being the best-known) attempted to compete with Carson, none was ever successful in drawing more viewers than Carson did onTonight, not even ABC's short-lived revival of Paar's show in 1973 using the nameJack Paar Tonite (though Paar blamed erratic scheduling and his own unwillingness to succeed at the expense of Cavett, his friend and former writer). Much like Paar, Carson became tired of fulfilling the workload of 525 minutes a week, soThe Tonight Show was shortened to 90 minutes and again to 60 minutes in 1980 with 15 weeks of vacation a year. Because of a lack of competition, Carson was free to take time off (by 1980, he was only hosting three new shows a week) and have guest hosts on the show on a weekly basis, and for weeks at a time when Carson was on vacation, includingJoey Bishop (a former competitor of his),Joan Rivers,David Letterman,Bob Newhart,Don Rickles,David Brenner andJerry Lewis.
ABC opted not to compete against Carson with a late-night talk show. In 1980, it produced a pilot of aRichard Dawson-hosted show calledBizarre (it instead went to series onShowtime withJohn Byner as host) and, for two years, carried the weekly sketch comedy seriesFridays. ABC instead counterprogrammed Carson with a successfulnews magazine entitledNightline, beginning in 1980.
After 1980, Carson produced new shows only three nights a week with guest hosts and "Best of Carson" reruns the other two nights. From 1983 to 1986, Rivers and Brenner served as Carson's permanent guest hosts. Many in 1986, including top executives at NBC, thought it was possible that Johnny Carson would retire after reaching his 25th anniversary on October 1, 1987, as it was such a logical cut-off point.
In the spring of 1986, a confidential memo between top NBC executives, listing about ten possible replacements in the event of Carson's retirement the next year, was leaked. When Rivers saw it, she was shocked to see that she was nowhere on the list despite the fact that she had beenThe Tonight Show's permanent guest host since 1983. In 1986, Joan Rivers joined the brand-newFox network, where she hosted her own late-night talk show,The Late Show, which competed directly againstThe Tonight Show.Clint Holmes served as Rivers' announcer whileMark Hudson served as band leader. Carson was incensed that Rivers did not consult him beforehand and never spoke to her again.
Brenner also leftTonight in 1986, although he did so amicably, to launch a syndicated 30-minute late-night talk show calledNightlife, which was canceled after one season.
From 1986 to 1987Garry Shandling, who had been a frequent guest host for Carson in the early 1980s, served as permanent guest host, alternating withJay Leno. He then left to focus on his cable program,It's Garry Shandling's Show, leaving Leno to be Carson's sole guest host.
In June 1987,Late Night with David Letterman, which had been running very successfully on NBC expanded from four to five nights per week, displacing the four-year-oldFriday Night Videos to the timeslot following it.FNV, which had several subsequent format changes, ran until 2002.
Rivers was fired fromThe Late Show in 1987 after abysmal ratings and a battle with network executives, leading to her being replaced byArsenio Hall. Hall performed extremely well among viewers in the 18–49 demographic; however, Fox had already greenlitThe Wilton North Report to replaceThe Late Show, leading to Hall hosting his own late-night talk show in syndication afterThe Late Show was canceled in 1988.The Late Show continued with several unknown hosts until its cancellation. Hall's syndicated show,The Arsenio Hall Show, began in syndication in 1988, becoming more popular among younger viewers than Carson.
Carson did not retire in 1987, instead continuing as host until 1992 with Leno as sole permanent guest host. The last network attempt at a Carson competitor, CBS'sThe Pat Sajak Show, lasted less than 16 months, debuting in 1989 and being canceled in 1990.
Beginning on August 22, 1988, NBC concluded its main programming for the day with a half-hour entry,Later, hosted by NBC sportscasterBob Costas and airing at 1:35 a.m. Eastern, after Letterman, Mondays through Thursdays. It originated from30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York and bore a strong resemblance to an earlier NBC late-night favorite, Tom Snyder'sTomorrow, due to its lack of the typical late-night trappings in favor of a low-key but intense concentration upon Costas interviewing a single guest. Costas hosted the program until 1994.
Carson retired as host ofThe Tonight Show in 1992 following his 30th anniversary as host. This garnered major media attention and speculation on who would replace him. The two candidates wereDavid Letterman (host ofLate Night since 1982) andJay Leno (Carson's regular guest host since 1987). Leno was eventually chosen, leading to Letterman leaving the NBC network for CBS to launch the direct competitorLate Show with David Letterman in 1993.The Tonight Show with Jay Leno debuted in 1992 and Letterman was replaced by newcomerConan O'Brien as host ofLate Night. Arsenio Hall's show lost numerous affiliates after Letterman's debut and his show was canceled one year later.
Fox returned to late-night television in September 1993 withThe Chevy Chase Show. However, due to sagging ratings, disastrous reviews, and Chase's embitterment at not being allowed to present the program according to his preferences, the show was canceled the following month.
MTV entered the late-night contest in 1993 when it debutedThe Jon Stewart Show, hosted byJon Stewart, which ran until 1995.
In 1994 Bob Costas, the host of NBC'sLater, gave way to the host of the cable showTalk Soup,Greg Kinnear, whose tenure was accompanied by a move to Burbank and toward a more conventional, audience-and-celebrity-driven format. Kinnear parlayed that experience into a movie career and stayed only two years; he left in 1996 and was succeeded by a plethora of fill-in hosts for the next four years.
Letterman initially won the late-night ratings battle but fell behind Leno in 1995; Leno generally remained in first place until first leavingTonight in 2009. To combat NBC'sLate Night, CBS gave Letterman's studioWorldwide Pants control of the post-Late Show time slot, and premieredThe Late Late Show with Tom Snyder in 1995 — serving as a spiritual successor to Snyder'sTomorrow.[7][8] They had originally attempted to lure Bob Costas away from NBC andLater (offering to have him hostThe Late Late Show and become a correspondent for CBS's newsmagazine60 Minutes), but were unsuccessful due to his desire to stay withNBC Sports, as well as continuing his relationship with NBC chiefDick Ebersol.[9]
Snyder departedTomorrow in 1999 and was succeeded byCraig Kilborn. At this time,The Late Late Show switched to a more conventional (albeit lower-budget) format in line withLate Show and its competitors. Kilborn had previously served as host ofThe Daily Show, a late-night satirical news program onComedy Central, and upon Kilborn's departure, Jon Stewart replaced him on that program. Perhaps one of the most unusual late-night hosts to come out of this boom was basketball player and later entrepreneurMagic Johnson, whose syndicatedThe Magic Hour was a major flop and effectively ended any future efforts from anyone else at a syndicated late-night talk show at that point in time.
ABC finally re-entered the late-night first-run comedy fray, after an absence of 15 years, in 1997 by placingPolitically Incorrect withBill Maher (which had aired onComedy Central from 1993 to 1996) into its lineup afterNightline. Unlike traditional late-night talk shows,Politically Incorrect was a half hour in length and (following a brief host monologue) featured a panel of four guests debating topical issues while Maher moderated in a comedic fashion.
With the new millennium in 2000, NBC'sLater finally got another permanent host after various figures had taken the chair for several years, in the form of aVH1 personality, Cynthia Garrett, who broke the proverbial "glass ceiling" by becoming the first African-American female late-night host. Unfortunately, Garrett only lasted a year before NBC canceled the12+1⁄2-year-oldLater in favor of reruns of the critically acclaimed cult Canadian-produced sketch comedy series,SCTV, itself a former NBC late-night program that aired Fridays between 1981 and 1983. That action, a temporary measure, was necessitated by the prolonged development of, and negotiations with a host of, a slated replacement show (see below).
Many late-night talk shows went off the air in the days following theSeptember 11 attacks of 2001, while their networks aired round-the-clock news coverage. Letterman was the first to return on September 17, addressing the situation in an opening monologue. The show was not presented in its normal jovial manner, and featuredDan Rather,Regis Philbin, and a musical performance fromTori Amos.Politically Incorrect also resumed on September 17 andimmediately drew controversy due to remarks Maher and a guest (Dinesh D'Souza) made concerning the "coward" label given to the terrorists byPresident George W. Bush.The Tonight Show returned the following night, featuringJohn McCain and a performance fromCrosby, Stills, and Nash.
After NBC's placeholding run ofSCTV at 1:35 a.m. came to an end after a year, the network debutedLast Call with Carson Daly in its place in January 2002; Daly was a formerMTV VJ. Four months later, it expanded to five nights a week (fromLater's four), and unlike the other shows on the air at the time, only a half-year's worth of first-run programs were recorded each season. In 2009,Last Call was retooled with atravelogue-like format, using interviews and performances filmed on-location rather than a traditional studio-based format.[10][11]
Politically Incorrect was canceled due to low ratings in the summer of 2002, after which Maher joinedHBO and began hosting the similarly formatted weekly seriesReal Time. ABC then tapped Comedy Central personalityJimmy Kimmel to host a more traditional late-night program,Jimmy Kimmel Live!. From its beginning in 2003 until early 2013, the show aired followingNightline on ABC's late-night lineup. WithNightline past its prime in audience size due to the proliferation of cable news, and ABC believing in stronger ratings potential in the timeslot,Jimmy Kimmel Live! was moved to 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on January 8, 2013—placing it in line with its competitors, Letterman and Leno.[12][13]
On October 17, 2005, Comedy Central premieredThe Colbert Report, a spin-off ofThe Daily Show hosted by regular cast memberStephen Colbert. The show was structured as a satire of opinion-basedcable news programs, featuring Colbertportraying anarcissisticpundit reminiscent ofFox News hosts such asBill O'Reilly andSean Hannity, among other influences.[14][15]
Jake Sasseville entered the late-night arena after a self-syndication campaign got him clearance on several ABC affiliates by local general managers in 2008.The Edge with Jake Sasseville aired afterJimmy Kimmel Live! in some markets, reaching a total of 35 million homes, despite the network's concerns.[16] The show went off the air in 2010. Another syndicated show that earned significant clearance in the late 2000s wasComics Unleashed, which was produced byByron Allen'sEntertainment Studios, and had still been cleared by some stations (such asWCBS-TV and other CBSowned-and-operated stations) as late as 2013 without any new episodes having been produced.[17]Comics Unleashed has largely relied on Allenbuying the airtime from CBS and its stations to achieve clearance.[18]
Scottish nativeCraig Ferguson succeeded Kilborn as host ofThe Late Late Show in 2005, renaming itThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.TBS entered the late-night scene in 2009 when it debutedLopez Tonight, hosted by comedianGeorge Lopez. On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary ofThe Tonight Show's debut, NBC announced that Jay Leno would be succeeded byConan O'Brien, in 2009. Leno explained that he did not want to cause a repeat of the hard feelings and controversy that occurred when he was picked for the show overDavid Letterman following Carson's retirement in 1992.[19][20] O'Brien's finalLate Night episode was taped on February 20, 2009.Saturday Night Live alumJimmy Fallon took over as host ofLate Night on March 2, 2009.
The popularity of late-night shows in the United States has been cited as a key factor in Americans not getting a requisite seven to eight hours of sleep per night.[21] Since 2015, late-night talk shows have competed for thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Talk Series; prior to then, the genre competed against general variety shows for thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series.
Jay Leno hosted his final episode ofThe Tonight Show on May 29, 2009, with his successor Conan O'Brien, and musicianJames Taylor as his guests.[22] O'Brien took over hosting duties onThe Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien the following Monday, June 1, 2009.
In September 2009, Leno began hosting a newprime time talk show on NBC,The Jay Leno Show. It aired on weeknights at 10 p.m. ET/PT before late local news andThe Tonight Show, and featured sketches and elements carried over from his tenure.[23] The program faced dismal ratings, which also led to complaints from NBC affiliates that it was impacting the viewership of their late local newscasts.[24][25]
On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported thatThe Jay Leno Show would be moved to 11:35 p.m. andThe Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien would be moved from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. effective March 1, 2010, the first time in its history that the show would begin after midnight in the Eastern Time Zone.[26][27][28] On January 12, 2010, O'Brien publicly announced in an open letter that he intended to leave NBC if it movedThe Tonight Show to any timeslot after midnight in order to accommodateThe Jay Leno Show at 11:35 p.m. ET. He felt it would damage the show's legacy, as it had always started after the late local news since it began in 1954.[29]
After several days of negotiations, O'Brien reached a settlement with NBC that allowed him to leaveThe Tonight Show on January 22, 2010, ending his affiliation with NBC after 22 years.[30] Leno began his second tenure as host ofThe Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, after the2010 Winter Olympics,but only after major controversy.[31] Leno's secondTonight iteration was taped at NBC's Studio 11 in Burbank, the former home ofThe Jay Leno Show, with a modified version of that show's set. After leaving NBC, O'Brien began hosting his new late night talk show,Conan, onTBS on November 8, 2010, after the non-compete clause in his NBC contract had lapsed.
In March 2013, news broke that NBC was expected to part ways with Leno for good after his contract expired in 2014, clearing the way for Fallon (whose tenure atLate Night had found success with a young, culturally savvy audience that was very desirable to advertisers) to take overThe Tonight Show beginning that year, which also marked the 60th anniversary of the franchise. NBC confirmed the change on April 3, 2013. Under Fallon, the show returned to New York City, where the show originated from its 1954 debut until 1972; NBC no longer owns the formercompany-owned studios in Burbank where Carson and Leno's programs originated (O'Brien'sTonight Show taped at nearbyUniversal Studios). On May 13, 2013, it was announced that Fallon's formerSNL castmateSeth Meyers would assume the duties ofLate Night once Fallon moved toThe Tonight Show.[32]The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon debuted during NBC's coverage of theWinter Olympics in Russia on February 17, 2014, whileLate Night with Seth Meyers debuted one week later.
2014 and 2015 saw a realignment to CBS's late night lineup: in April 2014, Craig Ferguson announced that he would leaveThe Late Late Show at the end of the year.[33] On September 8, 2014, British actor and comedianJames Corden was announced as thenew host ofThe Late Late Show.[34] His incarnation of the program was modelled more upon British chat shows such asThe Graham Norton Show, de-emphasizing the monologue and relying on multiple guests present throughout the entire show (rather than interviewed individually).[35][36] Meanwhile, in May 2015, David Letterman retired fromLate Show, ending a 33-year career on late-night TV,[37] and was succeeded the following September by Stephen Colbert—who departed from Comedy Central andThe Colbert Report to host the program.[38] On August 6, 2015, Jon Stewart also retired fromThe Daily Show (being succeeded by fellow cast member and South African comedianTrevor Noah),[39] joiningThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert as an executive producer and occasional contributor.[40]
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert achieved critical and ratings successes for itssatire of the2016 U.S. presidential election campaign and thepresidency ofDonald Trump; following the 2018–19 television season, it was the highest-rated late-night talk show overall for the third season in a row, and narrowly beatThe Tonight Show in key demographic (18-to-49-year-old) viewership for the first time since 1994–95.[41]
On February 12, 2019, NBC announced thatLast Call with Carson Daly would conclude after its 2000th and final episode. Daly had already reduced his role on the program in 2013 due to his commitments to theToday Show and other projects.[10][11] On September 16, 2019, NBC premieredA Little Late with Lilly Singh—a new talk show hosted by Indian-CanadianYouTuberLilly Singh. She became the first openlybisexual person and the first person of Indian descent to host an American late-night talk show.[42][43]
Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, nearly every American late-night talk shows were forced to impose major changes to their formats in March 2020 due to public health orders and restrictions on gatherings. They initially adopted formats produced remotely from their hosts' homes, with all guests appearing viavideoconferencing. By July 2020, late-night shows began to migrate back to studio-based productions, but with reconfigured or different studios than normal with no audience and continued use of remote interviews. By October 2021, all late-night TV shows (with the exception ofThe Daily Show, which opted to continue without an audience as a stylistic choice) had full audiences return to their studio.[44]
One of the few programs initially unaffected by COVID-19 restrictions wasA Little Late, as it had already filmed the entirety of its first season in 2019.[45][43][46] The program shifted to a home-based production for its second season in January 2021, with Singh citing both the pandemic and a creative preference against a traditional studio-based format.[47] Singh opted not to continueA Little Late beyond 2021, and NBC returned the time slot to its affiliates.[48]Conan concluded its run on June 24, 2021, with O'Brien having announced plans to produce a weekly "variety" show forHBO Max and focus on other digital media projects.[49][50]
On January 17, 2023, it was announced that Craig Ferguson would make a return to late-night television with a new syndicated program fromSony Pictures Television,Channel Surf with Craig Ferguson; as opposed toThe Late Late Show and other late-night shows, the program was pitched as having a specific focus on television as a topic, and air in a half-hour timeslot.Channel Surf never made it to series.[51]
James Corden hosted his final episode ofThe Late Late Show on April 27, 2023,[52] in a departure that was first announced a year prior.[53] It was reported that CBS was reconsidering the future of theLate Late Show franchise in favor of lower-cost formats; in November 2023, the network officially announced that it would premiere aTaylor Tomlinson-hosted revival of@midnight—a comedypanel show previously aired by corporate siblingComedy Central from 2013 through 2017—as a replacement in 2024. Its development and premiere had been delayed due to theWriters Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes.[54][55] CBS filled theLate Late Show timeslot with reruns and previously unaired episodes ofComics Unleashed.[56][57] The revival, titled@fter Midnight, premiered on January 16, 2024.[58] Tomlinson announced her resignation in March 2025, after which CBS discontinued programming the time slot once the last episodes aired in June[59] and sold the airtime to Byron Allen, who promptly returned the time slot toComics Unleashed.[18]
Late-night talk show viewership had a brief peak in 2016 in the wake of retirements and new hosts but has been in steep decline since then. Conan O'Brien, in a 2023 interview, noted that several factors played into the decline, all of which impacted his decision to endConan and focus on other projects, including a saturated market, the loss of thecaptive audience tovideo on demand options, and a changing culture that made it more difficult to make genuine fun of the culture (O'Brien, who tended to rely less on political humor than some of his contemporaries, citedDonald Trump as an example of a figure so polarizing that even those who do not like him would be repulsed by the mention of him, even in a satirical context, while those who arehis fans would be offended).[60] Leno remarked in 2025 that the current crop of hosts were more openly and consistently partisan (most of the existing hosts have openly favoredDemocrats) and lessescapist than their predecessors, which had the potential to worsenaudience fragmentation ("Now you have to be content with half the audience because you have to give your opinion"); Leno, who was not averse to political humor when hostingTonight, generally split his jokes evenly between the two major parties.[61] In a 2024 podcast, Jimmy Kimmel admitted that he only agreed to continueJimmy Kimmel Live! because he feared he had no career options if the show were to end, also noting that he anticipated that within the next ten years, the networks would decide that the format was no longer cost-effective andcancel all of the remaining shows: "maybe there'll be one."[62]
CBS was the first network to confirm Kimmel's predictions when Colbert announced in July 2025 thatThe Late Show would be cancelled in May 2026 and that it would be exiting the late-night time slot with no replacement programming; CBS stated that the late-night format was no longer profitable, even though Colbert's was the top-rated in its genre, due to high production costs, audience fragmentation and declining advertising revenue.[63][64] Kimmel disputed this claim as "nonsensical" but acknowledged that late-night programming was not profitable based on advertising alone and that the genre relied on earmarks from the network, paid through its stations' affiliate fees, to cover the remainder.[65]Kimmel was suspended and his program pulled from the air for a portion of September 2025[66] following an affiliate revolt[67] against comments Kimmel had made on the program regarding theassassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk; the suspension would eventually be lifted later that month.[68]
- DRC (Congo)
Le #ChezfrancisKakondeshow on Antenne A Monday/Wednesday and Friday at 23h30 (20th season) since 2003–2023
Host: Francis Kakonde
2020-2025 Task master
This diet of TV late at night is a key reason up to 40% of Americans get less than the 'recommended' seven to eight hours of sleep, according to recent research from the University of Pennsylvania.