Late-night comedy shows, once the kingpins of American television, are facing a tough year in 2024, marked by a steady decline in viewership and cultural relevance. Key figures like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and others spent much of 2024 bashing President-elect Donald Trump, but a new study shows their relentless political focus has not only alienated a large portion of their audience but also failed to boost ratings.
According to a report from the Media Research Center, between September 3 and October 25, late-night hosts made 1,463 jokes about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris during the fall election period. A staggering 98 percent of those jokes were aimed at Trump, with very little attention paid to Vice President Kamala Harris. In fact, a full 78 percent of the jokes targeting vice-presidential candidates were aimed at Republican J.D. Vance, revealing the overwhelming bias in late-night political humor. While humor and satire have always been a part of late-night culture, this one-sided commentary seems to be increasingly alienating viewers who are either indifferent to, or tired of, political humor.
The late-night hosts didn’t just target Trump in their monologues. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and others showed their emotions on air after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election. Colbert, known for his snarky political humor, seemed almost shell-shocked in the aftermath of Trump’s decisive win, including both the popular vote and the electoral college. Kimmel also struggled to mask his emotions, holding back tears on his first broadcast after the result.
In October 2024, Colbert hosted Kamala Harris for an interview. The vice president was treated to an array of softball questions, yet still managed to butcher several of her responses, a moment that some critics believe encapsulates the hollow nature of celebrity-politician interviews in an era of hyper-partisanship. Despite these efforts to prop up his preferred candidate, the interview fell flat in terms of both viewership and public engagement.
The numbers paint a bleak picture for late-night television. Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show on CBS, usually the top-rated of the late-night trio, attracted an average of 2.6 million viewers during the 2023-24 season, down significantly from 3.81 million just five years ago. The downward trend continued into 2024, with the third-quarter numbers for the current season showing an average of just 2.5 million viewers.
Jimmy Kimmel’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC fared worse, with just 1.37 million viewers in the third quarter of 2024. Even as Colbert and Kimmel continue to dominate their respective networks in terms of late-night viewership, the numbers are a far cry from the late-night heyday of the early 2000s when the genre ruled the airwaves.
While the traditional late-night shows struggle, Fox News’ Gutfeld! has been thriving, surpassing its network competitors. Hosted by Greg Gutfeld, the late-night comedy show on Fox has consistently outperformed Colbert, Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon in terms of both ratings and cultural influence. Gutfeld’s show has capitalized on the rising popularity of conservative-leaning comedy and political commentary, offering an alternative to the increasingly left-leaning late-night format. His success highlights the ideological rift in late-night television and suggests that there is an untapped audience for a more balanced style of comedy.
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I have never approved of Colbert’s downright nasty mind nor Kimmel’s constant actual crying over his personal problems and political viewpoint deflecting blame to anything other than the face in his mirror. People want to have pleasant dreams not toss and turn thinking of the hatespeak they heard before closing their eyes. I always watched Jimmy Fallon until the night he crossed the line. It was obvious he was being forced against his will to jump on the anti-Trump wagon. The fact is he did and I switched in the middle of the monologue to bingeing on Blue Bloods and The Big Bang gang. I have never looked back – over eight years ago.
Public figures expect some satire about them but in politics it should be delivered about opponents equally. These men were out to get Trump and they GOT TRUMP bigly! In this cancel culture, they should be cancelled. I do like GUTFELD. The format is similar to The Five which also enjoys great ratings. Why? They are fair, they are funny, they are honest, they have integrity and they are not mean, dirty or nasty!
THOSE THREE DIPSTICKS DO NOT COME UP TO PAR WITH THE LIKES OF GALLOWAY, PARR, CARSON AND LENO. I HAVE NOT WATCHED ANY OF THEIR SHOWS. DO NOT DO LATE NIGHT SHOWS SINCE LENO SIGNED OFF.
Colbert, Kimmel, et al, are getting just what they deserve. It’s too bad that they don’t get canceled. At least Greg Gutfeld is humorous and his guests on more in tune with the country then those liberals in Hollywood.
I have no clue how some of these creeps have remained on the air;,
They are NOT funny; they actually have NOTHGING to offer and, other than bashing conservatives and President Trump in particular
They should have been takenoff the air long ago.