The “Late Night Shows” in the United States have not died. But what was once a national television ritual, loaded with light humor, interviews with celebrities and a hint of irreverence, today struggles to survive in a media ecosystem that changed dramatically.
To the progressive fall of audience and advertising guideline, a more direct threat is added: a vengeful president (Donald Trump) and an increasingly docile corporate structure before political power.
The spark that ignited the debate was the cancellation of “The Late Show” With Stephen Colbert, announced by Paramount Global, Matrix company of CBS and owner locally from Telefe. The program – and with him, a whole franchise that goes back to David Letterman’s arrival to the chain in 1993 – will come to an end. And it is not only the closure of a show, but of an institution of American television.
Two causes, the same crisis
The fall of the “Late Night Shows” can be explained in two complementary planes. The first is structural: a slow but constant loss of relevance against the rise of more agile digital platforms. In 2018, all night programs raised in the United States, about 439 million dollars in combined advertising. In 2024, that figure was reduced to 220 million. The audience migrated to YouTube, Podcasts, Tiktok and Social Networks, where the contents are more direct, informal and personalized.
The background is political: the pressure exerted by the administration of Donald Trump, which not only celebrates Colbert’s departure but also implies it, while threatening to do the same with other critical presenters such as Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon. The White House even suggested withdrawing licenses to chains such as ABC and NBC for acting as “arms of the Democratic Party.” Both narratives, although different, converge in the same outcome: a genre threatened from the inside and from the outside.
Little modern
This night television was born with an aesthetic that already seemed out of fashion when it debuted. Men in a suit, heavy curtains, broad desks and monologues oscillated between the light and the political. Jimmy Fallon still maintains that classic style; Everyone has a desk, everyone dresses as if they were still the 90s (the return of Mario Pergolini with that format to Argentine television is not casuar: see box). However, there was always room to break that solemnity: from the Steve Allen jelly dive in 1954 to the live resignations of Jack Paar in 1960.
The “Late Night” offered a kind of hygienized rebellion: scripted jokes, rehearsed irreverence, and occasional moments of content. One knew that “something could happen,” although nothing was not like that nothing happened. And that was fine.
Therefore, what is evidenced today is not a sudden collapse, but a long agony. Since 2019, gender accumulates cancellations. Netflix discontinued programs like “Patriot Act” by Hasan Minhaj and “Chelsea” by Chelsea Handler. Hulu finished “I love you, America” with Sarah Silverman. Comedy Central, TBS, Peacock and NBC gave low Samantha Bee shows, Larry Wilmore, Amber Ruffin and Lilly Singh. Even CBS eliminated “After Midnight”, heir to Late Late Show, after the departure of Taylor Tomlinson.
Those who resist
They survived just some bastions: “The Tonight Show”, “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, Although in an increasingly hostile environment. They compete not only with the fragmentation of consumption, but with new forms of free comedy, such as celebrity podcasts (“Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend”, “Smartless”, “WTF” with Marc Maron) that offer something that TV can no longer: informality, intimacy, authenticity.
The policy continues there, but otherwise. In fact Colbert and Meyers adopted the Jon Stewart model: monologues loaded with political satire. This gave them visibility, virality in networks and, for a while, rating. Colbert shot at a audience when he became openly critical of Trump. But the turn was not free. Jay Leno, former driver of “The Tonight Show,” criticized that politicization in a recent interview: “People want to escape everyday pressure, not get more into it,” he said. Even so, he himself admitted years that, in this era, “if you do not take sides, both sides hate you.”
Business and formats
On the sidewalk there is another style. The pandemia accentuated the transformation: presenters transmitting from their homes, without makeup or scenery. An unprecedented closeness with the public that questioned the need for the old format. How to return to the suit and the scenery after that break? The current context, however, goes beyond cultural mutations. Colbert’s cancellation occurred days after criticizing a payment of 16 million dollars from Paramount to Trump, which he called “a fat bribe.” The president publicly celebrated the decision and made it clear that he expects the same for other critics.
It is no accident that the cancellation occurred in the same month when the Government approved the fusion of Paramount with Skydance Media, a company near Trump, financed by Magnate Larry Ellison. As part of the agreement, Skydance promised to eliminate diversity and inclusion policies, create an office against “ideological bias” and review the news contents. When he consulted, the president of the FCC, Brendan Carr, not only did not denied the presidential intervention, but justified it: “Trump is reconfiguring the media ecosystem. This is a necessary correction,” he said. Asked if that violates the first amendment, he replied: “It’s time for change.”
The political pressure
In 2017, Trump had already tried to withdraw licenses to critical chains, but the then head of the FCC refused for constitutional reasons. Today, with another political alignment, the threat becomes more real. Is it worth defending the late night? Many despise night television by outdated. But its value did not lie only in entertainment: it was a space where political criticism could be filtered with humor, where the power was challenged, even if the presenter looked like a common guy in suit and smile (echoes of what was once locally the Tato Bores show). Today, when self -censorship gains ground and large corporations prefer to avoid conflicts with power, that varnishing rebellion of comedy acquires a new symbolic value.
Jon Stewart understood. In “The Daily Show”, he closed a segment on Colbert’s exit with a gospel choir singing “go to the m …” to any institution that self -census to avoid angry the government. If Late Night has to end, at least do it roaring. The end of “The Late Show” marks much more than the closure of a program. It is a symptom of an era where satire loses place, annoying criticism and traditional media face the dilemma of surviving without a soul or dying with dignity.
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