#late-night-television

#late-night-television

One canceled late-night host and one temporarily canceled late-night host walked into a bar, or actually set, on Tuesday. Jimmy Kimmel hosted fellow comedian Stephen Colbert on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" a week after Disney put Kimmel's show back on the air. Colbert also hosted Kimmel on his own show, "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," the same night. The shows were taped earlier in the day on Tuesday and aired late that night.

Late-night television hosts credited people who boycotted Disney for getting Jimmy Kimmel's late night TV show back on the air after the corporation had indefinitely suspended Kimmel amid pressure from the Trump administration. We got word that our long national late-nightmare is over, Stephen Colbert said during his show on Monday night. Once more, I am the only martyr in late night, unless CBS, you want to announce anything?

Cue Stewart, his usually cool blue set switched out for Mar-a-Lago gold, his eyes nervously darting, launching into 20 minutes of mock-obsequious toadying to our great father, praising his state visit to the UK, redrawing maps to reflect Trump's spotty knowledge of international affairs Azerbaijan is now officially Aberbaijan, and it's at war with Albania and frantically shushing the studio audience whenever they laughed at or booed the president (Shut up, you're going to blow this for us!)

Once the crown jewel of network television, the format faces pressure on multiple fronts. Hosts have become the target of Trump and his allies, who don't find their satirical jokes funny and want them off the air. At the same time, late-night shows are grappling with declining ratings and ad revenue as audiences shift away from linear TV viewing to streaming and social media.

Back in the 90s and 2000s, much ink was spilled as the major networks grappled for ratings in the now-quaint real estate of post-11PM programming. Johnny Carson retired. David Letterman jumped to CBS. Conan O'Brien was plucked from obscurity, eventually handed The Tonight Show, and then had it essentially clawed back by Jay Leno for a few more years of appalling hackwork.

The network late-night shows have returned from summer hiatus - something that The Late Show reminded us is actually a new season of late night. You never think about late-night TV having seasons. It's constant and cyclic and intermittently makes you cry, like menstruation. But the cable shows - your WWHLs and HIGNFYs, are still on a break. Still, it was good to get the boys back in town to cover Trump not dying.

O'Brien's guest, the comedian Eric André, sits down and grabs a microphone from the host's desk. "Is this my microphone?" André asks, while trying to figure out a way to attach the desk mike to his shirt. Then he retches and picks up a nearby coffee mug. "What's in here, oatmeal?" he asks. For anybody familiar with André's comedy, which relies on the shocking and the absurd, all of this makes sense.

I understand the fear that you and your advertisers have with $8 billion at stake, but understand this: Truly, the shows that you now seek to cancel, censor, and control-a not insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those fucking shows-that's what made you that money.

Lawrence Jones criticized Stephen Colbert's performance, stating that his impression of Trump was poor and he lacked comedy, calling him an extreme partisan with low ratings.