Jimmy Kimmel Worried Late Night Shows Will Disappear Soon, But Would Anyone Notice?

Late-night television used to be a source of comedy and entertainment geared at the vast majority of American adults. "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" ran for 30 straight years and helped jump start the careers of dozens of comedians and entertainers.

Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, among others, leaned to pushed left politically, but still made their shows generally about sketches, having stars on to promote upcoming releases, and broader comedy about current events. That generation, though, is long gone.

Instead, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon have predominantly turned the shows and the entire genre into late night therapy for liberals. Where once late night was a source of far-ranging comedy, they're now deeply, profoundly unfunny political commentary. Every "joke" is some variation of "Trump bad, Democrats good." There are few movie stars that matter to bring in viewers. Colbert at one point ran one of the most embarrassing sketches in television history when he performed a musical number for the "Vax-scene."

Even his own audience knows that he and his friends at CNN are far left politically.

READ: Stephen Colbert Called CNN 'Objective' & His Audience Laughed, Thinking He Must Be Joking

Now, in an interview on Gavin Newsom's podcast, as if we needed more examples of how far gone late night hosts are, Kimmel said he fears for the future of late-night television. 

"I don’t know if there will be any late-night television shows on network TV in 10 years," Kimmel said. "Maybe there’ll be one but there won’t be a lot of them," he continued. "There’s a lot to watch and now people can watch anything at anytime, they’ve got all these streaming services. It used to be Johnny Carson was the only thing on at 11:30 p.m. and so everybody watched and then David Letterman was on after Johnny so people watched those two shows, but now they’re so many options."

Jimmy Kimmel is worried about the future of late night television and what he'll do after he retires. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Jimmy Kimmel Doesn't Even Understand The Problems With Late-Night TV

Kimmel doesn't seem to understand that viewers are choosing those other options because his show is so unwatchable.

What role does it even fill? The left has clearly and consistently demonstrated over the past decade+ that is has no sense of humor. Comedies have all but disappeared from movie theaters, and viewership for late-night shows has dropped dramatically.

Yes, there will always be an audience of liberals who love hearing that Kimmel and Colbert share their smug, unearned sense of superiority, but as Hollywood keeps discovering with film flops, it's a relatively small one. The future of late-night was sealed when it became targeted towards one specific demographic.

There's little to no appeal to watching Kimmel and Colbert lecture viewers about supporting left-wing politics when that's already available in every other aspect of culture and social media. The Carson-era "Tonight Show" was broad comedy that poked fun at everyone. Carson may have been a Democrat, but it wasn't the sole focus of his show. If Kimmel and his show disappeared tomorrow, few would notice or care. All thanks to Kimmel's own ideology and priorities.