Hollywood knows it’s not just about Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert. At the end of the day, Hollywood is run by ruthless, shrewd, and soulless business people who just happen to find Leftist ideologies compatible with their lack of a moral compass. In other words, being a Leftist helps them more than being conservative would in attaining what they really want – money and power.
When they put their business hats on, they can see very clearly all of the dynamics at work. And so, when they looked at the late-night numbers this year, they could see that it just doesn’t work anymore.
In the second quarter of this year, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” ranked first among shows in its 11:35 p.m. time slot, averaging 2.42 million viewers per show. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” attracted 1.77 million, and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” came in at 1.18 million. Any number of podcasts or influencer social media accounts do better than that.
Beyond the general numbers for late-night TV, for advertisers, the key demographic is people 18-49 years old. Recent data from USTVDB suggests that, at the time of his ABC suspension, Kimmel’s show was only attracting 129,000 members of that demographic. The previously-canceled-but-still-running Stephen Colbert show garnered 264,000 18-49-year-olds during the same period. And in that same time, Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show drew only 134,000 in that same group.
For context and comparison, take a look at the “Joe Rogan Experience” (JRE) podcast. Rogan’s audience is younger than that of the late-night shows. People 18-49 make up 70-85% of his following. Spotify reports that the JRE podcast has a total viewership/listenership of 14.5 million, dwarfing those late-night shows.
Hollywood execs see that. They also see that Stephen Colbert has been losing money. His show was reported to have cost $100 million a year, and it was said to be losing $40-50 million per year. According to Forbes, the Jimmy Kimmel numbers were much the same.
Industry analysts like to point to streaming as the cause of the decline of late-night TV. And as we’ve seen, reports of pressure from the Trump Administration have served as a convenient scapegoat for defenders of the late-night status quo. It’s much easier to blame Trump for cancelling some of woke Hollywood’s most sacred cows than it is to fess up to the truth, which is that Americans have decided it’s a better use of their time to go to bed than to stay up for Jimmy, Jimmy, and Stephen.
What no one in Hollywood wants to talk about, even though they know, is that streaming technology alone is not the reason for the dismal late-night numbers. It has more to do with content.
Joe Rogan sits in a room with a guest. No band, no audience, and no long-winded monologue to start the show. It’s usually just him and a guest or two sitting at a table for up to three straight hours. He breaks all of the rules for “good TV,” and yet, he wins. It can’t be ignored that he’s gradually shifted to the right in the process. To be sure, this is not “appointment TV.” Thanks to technology, his audience can listen or watch wherever they are, including on that 60-inch big screen in their family room.
Rogan leads the pack of a number of podcasts that draw larger audiences than network late shows. But none of this gets at the real problem Kimmel, Colbert, Fallon, and others face.
The real problem is one of content. It’s been well documented here and throughout conservative media that the late-night shows quit being funny and have instead decided to become propaganda arms of the left. They’ve hardly made this a secret. In 2022, Kimmel told a podcaster, which was reported in People Magazine, that, “I have lost half of my fanbase, maybe more. Ten years ago, among Republicans, I was the most popular talk show.” And then he added that he was willing to accept that while continuing to attack Trump and what he stood for.
Related: Jimmy Kimmel Missed This Clue About Trump, and It Was His Downfall
In short, Kimmel, Colbert, and the others have essentially told half of their audience they’re not welcome. This is particularly true of “flyover country,” the vast swaths of the country between New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles. If you live outside of these major blue cities, late-night comedians have made it clear they don’t want you. Stephen Kruiser touched on some of this earlier in the Morning Briefing with a very interesting take on Jon Stewart’s role in the downward spiral.
And so, you found other options. Podcasts, Netflix, TikTok, the X Platform, or your nice warm bed. Whatever you chose, the one thing you did not choose was to support Leftists who hate you.
Now, the people in charge in Hollywood can no longer ignore you because they literally can’t afford to look the other way any longer. These are the ones who get paid to see the cold reality that what they’ve been serving up just doesn’t cut it anymore.
They are making cold business decisions. Leftist ideologues are having public meltdowns and tantrums. This is all to be expected. Did you ever think they’d go quietly?
The networks will substitute these shows with less costly, higher-rated programming that is particularly more popular with you. Kimmel, Colbert, and Fallon know this, and that’s what scares them most. They all know that flyover country is where the money is.
One more thing: The culture war is real! If you want to see the Democrats go down to defeat in next year’s midterms and beyond, now is the time to join the battle to Make America Great Again. Without you, America can lose. We need your help to succeed!
As a PJ Media VIP, you’ll receive exclusive access to our behind-the-paywall content, commenting privileges, and an ad-free experience. VIP Gold gets you this same level of access across our entire family of sites (PJ Media, Townhall, RedState, twitchy, Hot Air, and Bearing Arms). And if you CLICK HERE and use the promo code FIGHT, you’ll receive a 60% discount!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member