Per Jon Rineman*
In late April, after James Corden announced he was leaving the “The Late Late Show” (American talk show airing on CBS) next spring, there was immediate speculation about his replacement.
Others, however, had a different response to the recent changes in nightly TV programming: Who cares?
Ratings are down, they indicate. The shows can’t get over their obsession with Trump. They represent a bygone era of television.
In my opinion, late night programming can still matter. Contrary to what some may say, dawn is not “dead” and can come back. But if it’s not going to fall into cultural oblivion as baseball did, it’s necessary to do what the national pastime didn’t: adapt and evolve.
Ask the target audience
For 9 years I wrote for 2 evening shows: “Late Night” and “The Tonight Show”, both hosted by Jimmy Fallon. I saw firsthand a new show that aired at 12:30 pm blossom into a hugely successful show at the coveted 11:30 pm. I was also around for the start of your presentation.
When I started teaching “Writing for Late Night” at Emerson University in 2019, the late-night programming remained formidable. At the beginning of the semester, I asked how many students regularly attended a talk show night. Each student attended at least 1; most, 2.
In 2021, about half said they followed, with the majority watching. “The Eric André Show” on Adult Swim and “Conan” on TBS – the latter ended in June 2021.
This year, only about 30% of my evening students considered themselves spectators. “regular” from any of these programs. While admiring their honesty, I thought: this is not good.
So, I asked my students who make up the 18-34 age group at night: “How would you change late at night?”
Some themes emerged.
As one student noted, there are so many repetitions of stories that have already made the news, it feels like you’re just watching more news.
So the following question arose: Why the need to intensively cover the main news?
A suggestion from several students was to focus more on specific and related issues. I found this interesting, as this was the style of Joan Rivers and Craig Ferguson – 2 examples of personalities who shunned the present at first in favor of issues that affect ordinary people.
What is the true entertainment value of 6 Debt Ceiling Jokes? What if instead of sad news about gas prices, the economy or Covid-19, the focus was on topics like choosing to work from home, going back to theaters or choosing an expensive streaming service? What if the deep-dive style that John Oliver mastered for Sunday nights was adapted for those who dragged on until Wednesday?
Former President Donald Trump is still an easy late-night topic — and he remains a reliable source for going viral on late-night programming. But when the same Trump joke is told by 5 presenters – which actually happened in March 2018 – the formula is probably not tenable.
A generational disconnect
Several students have noted that they sometimes find evening shows patronizing, with presenters making wrong assumptions about their generation. they don’t love boyband Korean girl BTS or want to hear celebrities talking about their luxurious lives. And they’re not exactly in line with NFTs – the digital collectibles that have seen a surge in popularity over the past year.
In January 2022, two of my evening classes and a business hours meeting started with some version of the same question: “What’s with your old boss and this monkey thing?”
They were referring to a segment where Jimmy Fallon interviewed Paris Hilton and compared her NFTs. I found the clip quite innocuous, but I’m no longer part of the target audience.
In class, it was described as “deaf” – two rich people shopping for expensive digital drawings when aspiring writers can barely afford laptops. Some students said they felt alienated by what came to be known as “celebrity culture”.
I was tempted to let it go. But then I thought of Myrtle Young.
Myrtle was Johnny Carson’s only guest. She was an old lady from Indiana who collected potato chips that looked like objects and people.
It was weird and bizarre, but exciting and real. Myrtle wasn’t trying to sell her products to people who couldn’t afford them; she was simply sharing a funny but fun passion.
I’m not saying the public needs to see some version of Myrtle and her fries every night. But do viewers need to see the same actor twice in a month, promoting the same movie they promoted the last time they appeared?
About the hosts…
The most common suggestion from my students was that late night programs need more diversity.
One name that came up several times was Lilly Singh, an extremely popular YouTube star who has 14.7 million subscribers.
In 2019, Singh was announced as the new host of an evening show on NBCreplacing Fallon and Seth Meyers — a move that was heralded as a much-needed diversification from the late-night “man in a suit” pattern.
Singh is bisexual, Indian-Canadian, and most importantly, funny. I saw Singh as a host of “Tonight Show”.
But something went wrong. There were reports of new content creators, new approaches and, finally, a cancellation.
From the outside, it looked like those who could help promote and empower Singh on television were counting on the new host to promote the show on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Could it be that the people responsible for the dawn didn’t notice Lilly Singh?
But if someone is already watching something on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, why would they set their decoders to 1:30am?
Several students spoke positively of Singh’s show and liked the idea of it being shown to an audience accustomed to viral videos while adapting their nighttime habits.
It wouldn’t be the first time a young presenter has experienced some growing pains. In 1993, Conan O’Brien was butchered by a critic after replacing David Letterman in “Late Night”. Even O’Brien admitted that his show took approximately 3 years to find his voice. In comparison, Singh took 2.
And with that, network viewers were left with a menu of 5 – soon to be 4 – white guys in suits: Corden, Fallon, Meyers, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
I often wonder how I grew up with Rivers and Arsenio Hall only to see things go backwards. I also wonder why the performer who I consider the most talented of all presenters today, Amber Ruffin, who is not a white guy in a suit, airs weekly on the Peacock streaming platform instead of every night on broadcast TV.
It’s disconcerting that my students, who avidly consume Aunty Donna, Tim Robinson, Ziwe, Eric Andre, and Desus & Mero, get none of this on their late-night schedule.
I cannot force those in power to make changes. But what I can do is report the opinions of my students — talented and intelligent writers who hope to hear their own jokes on television one day, but who often struggle to find a show to learn from.
Conservative comedian Greg Gutfeld is dominating programming not just because he cornered a target audience at Fox News, but because of systemic shortcomings at the TV network.
Funny or not, Gutfeld knows his audience and he wants to win. He cares. However, the chorus remains a version of “He’s just a conservative Manhattan braggart who’s out of his element, and the glow will eventually fade.”
Interesting. The last time the pundits were so arrogantly dismissive, a television presenter laughed all the way to the White House.
*Jon Rineman is affiliated with the Faculty of Visual and Media Arts and Comedy Arts at Emerson College. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
The text was translated by Vitória Queiroz. Read the full at English.
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