95% Of Late Night Guests Are Liberals
Liberal guests have outnumbered conservative 77-4 in late-night television this year.
NewsBusters research learned that 95 percent of guests were liberal between January 3 and May 1, the final night of shows before the Writers Guild of America strike.
The study reviewed guest lists for Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
And yet, the 77-4 advantage is a slight improvement from the prior count. Just one conservative guest had appeared on late-night between Labor Day and January 3, compared to 93 liberals.
Late-night television abandoned half of the country. And that half of the country abandoned it in return. As a result, ad revenue is down more than 60 percent from its peak in 2016.
We recently documented the fall of late-night. In short:
The industry is unrecognizable to its former self. This batch of late-night hosts neglect the formula that its predecessors used to rise atop American entertainment.
Late-night was tailor-made for the enjoyment of viewers. Welcoming to all. Carson was one of us. Leno was hysterical. Letterman spoke to our idols.
Simply put, late-night isn’t funny anymore. It’s preachy and inclusive. It’s limited to socially acceptable jokes, guests, and talking points.
Colbert is hyper-partisan with staunch disregard for at least half of the country. Fallon stole your 12-year-old’s repertoire of jokes. And Kimmel is a simp for Big Media, who he hopes forgives him for his previous days as just one of the guys.
US President Joe Biden speaks with host Jimmy Kimmel as he makes his first in-person appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" during his Los Angeles visit to attend the Summit of the Americas, in Hollywood, California, June 8, 2022. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Perhaps of a sign to come, CBS seized operations of The Late Late Show following James Corden's exit in April. Meaning, the network is not grooming a successor to Colbert, but instead limiting its late-night programming to just one show.
NBC is reportedly considering the same route, with the option to move Seth Meyers to MSNBC.
The Late Late Show had lost some $20 million a year as it failed to attract enough viewers to justify the high cost of production -- a dilemma that plagues the industry at large.
The late-night model is no longer sufficient. Each show now competes for the same staunch liberal audience that's already fragmented across network television.
Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, Meyers, and The Daily Show also compete with morning television, CNN, MSNBC, and the nightly news for a piece of the same pie.
Late night's disregard for moderates and conservatives is not only bad business, but it's also propped up hosts like Bill Maher and Greg Gutfeld, who have the rest of the country to themselves.
Lo and behold, Gutfeld often leads late-night in viewership while Maher is the undisputed most influential voice of the genre.
Late-night used to be apolitical, hysterical, and a piece of American culture. Today, it's left-wing propaganda, preachy, and rejected by society at large.
Its lack of humor is as damning as its featuring of only five conservative guests since Labor Day, compared to 170 liberals.