The Death of Late Night

Image courtesy of Rolling Stone

By Margaret Adams

There are many great things about this generation that the last few generations never got the chance to experience: Lady Gaga, multiple amazing drama series (Succession, The Crown), and technological benefits (even that is debatable). One of the few things our generation lacks, however, is incredible, culture-defining late-night television. 

During Johnny Carson’s three-decade run of hosting “The Tonight Show,” he received six Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Carson’s last show as host in 1992 attracted around 50 million viewers: he’s called the “King of Late Night TV” for a reason. 

While I am not a Johnny Carson super-fan, many people have attributed the best of late-night television to Carson’s guests. The show portrays a plethora of some of the most important names of media and entertainment throughout the last few decades; “The Tonight Show” broadcasted one of Barbra Streisand’s first television appearances and Judy Garland’s last.

“Just as newspaper archives provide a first draft of history, Carson’s show provides an evolving portrait of the heights of fame and talent of the moment, in Hollywood, but also the comedy clubs,”  New York Times writer Jason Zinoman said. 

Carson himself also had a pretty recognizable personality, with his deadpan humor and calming atmosphere. 

Late-night television shows like Jimmy Fallon’s, Jimmy Kimmel’s, Stephen Colbert’s, and James Corden’s seem more engaging, but more trivial and pointless compared to the influence that Johnny Carson had on television and late-night comedy talk shows. 

Another downside to late-night talk shows is that the majority of hosts are white men; while this is not particularly different from the culture of late-night television in the 60s and 70s, it does not reflect the ability we have to give platforms and airtime to people who are neither white nor men. There are a few hosts, however, that do not fit this mold. 

One late-night host who defeats these normative ideas is Trevor Noah and his show on Comedy Central, The Daily Show, which won multiple Emmy and Peabody awards. 

Another favorite variety show host is Ziwe Fumodoh, a young Black woman who interviews pop culture celebrities like Pheobe Bridgers and Fran Lebowitz through extremely comedic production and questions. She gained popularity through social media platforms such as Twitter and TikTok, but her talk show, Ziwe, has been renewed for a season two on Showtime. 

James and the rest of the Jimmys (Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, etc.) do maintain a certain grasp on this generation’s culture: Carpool Karaoke, a bit started through James Corden’s Late Late Show, has gained huge popularity through social media. Even with the advantage of more coverage and advertisement, modern late-night shows accrue viewership that does not even begin to compete with the viewership that Carson’s Tonight Show had. 

In the 2020-2021 television season, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was the most-watched late-night show with an average of 2.95 million viewers. Carson’s Tonight Show had an average of 6.5 million viewers a night. 

In my opinion, social media marked the death of late-night; interviews with celebrities can be accessed at all times through Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram, and this takes away from the exclusivity of it all; before Saturday Night Live started putting their skits on their YouTube Channel, I would go back to school on Monday and asked if anyone else caught that funny sketch with Bill Hader and Andy Samberg. 

The experience of sitting down in front of the television to watch a late-night comedy talk show has been disrupted by the knowledge that this content will be available elsewhere, at another time. 

While this can make the shows a bit more accessible to a larger audience, it detracts from the special and direct energy that Carson had on The Tonight Show – it’s not late-night anymore. It’s happening at all times, on all phones, on all media platforms. In that sense, late-night is dead. 

The best part of the change of culture surrounding late-night is that we can look forward to a time when the influential young stars being interviewed today, like Olivia Rodrigo, Zendaya, and Timothee Chalamet, the way that the last few generations look back to Johnny Carson for interviews with the time’s current upcoming stars. In this way, future nostalgia has become the heart of late-night television.