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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jay Leno Warns Against One-Sided Political Jokes: ‘Why Shoot for Just Half an Audience?'
The former late night host's comments came days before Stephen Colbert announced the end of "The Late Show" Jay Leno has said for years that he doesn't understand why comedians would lean into one-sided political humor – and most recently cautioned against it just days before Stephen Colbert announced his late night show run on CBS was coming to an end. 'Comedy can be used to unite or divide people,' Leno said on July 15 during a conversation with David Trulio at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institution. Leno was asked for his thoughts on the intersection of comedic commentary and politics, two realms he sought for years to balance carefully. More from TheWrap Jay Leno Warns Against One-Sided Political Jokes: 'Why Shoot for Just Half an Audience?' | Video Speaker Mike Johnson Slams Ghislaine Maxwell's 20-Year Sentence: 'A Pittance' | Video The Best New Shows on Netflix in July 2025 Connie Chung Says 'Shame On' Shari Redstone and the Ellisons: 'I Fear the End of CBS as I Knew It' | Video The former late night host also said it was fun to receive letters from viewers who equally accused of him of being a Republican or a Democrat. They often were reacting to 'the same joke' he said, which was 'how you got the whole audience.' Leno reflected on his decades-long friendship with Rodney Dangerfield and noted, 'I knew Rodney for 40 years. I have no idea if he was Democrat or Republican. We never discussed it. We just discussed jokes.' 'And to me, I like to think that people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, you know, the pressures of life or whatever it might be — and I love political humor,' Leno continued. After he was asked how to find 'common ground' through humor, Leno insisted that only catering to one political persuasion was ineffective. 'Well, why shoot for just half an audience all the time? You know, why not try to get the whole, I mean, I like to bring people into the big picture,'' he said. 'I don't understand why you would alienate one particular group, you know, or just don't do it at all.' Watch the interview in the video above. The post Jay Leno Warns Against One-Sided Political Jokes: 'Why Shoot for Just Half an Audience?' | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
CBC
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Late night's fiery side comes out after Colbert cancellation
Social Sharing When CBS announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would be ending in 2026, the news was not taken lying down by the hosts of late night, the least of all Jon Stewart. Today on Commotion, guest host Eli Glasner talks to culture writer Devin Gordon about the fallout from the cancellation, and why it took Colbert getting axed to bring out late night's fiery side again. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:
Daily Mail
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Jimmy Fallon 'jokes' about future of his ailing show after rival Steven Colbert was axed by CBS
Jimmy Fallon has addressed Stephen Colbert 's 'Late Show' cancellation and the fate of his show amid calls for his axing - with a little joke. 'I am your host,' Fallon said to introduce Monday night's Tonight Show. 'Well, at least for tonight.' The former SNL star then grew serious, speaking on the state of late night and the political climate some have said played a part in CBS's decision to do away with Colbert's show. 'I don't like it. I don't like what's going on one bit. These are crazy times,' Fallon said, referencing how 'everybody [was] talking about' the decision. 'And many people are now threatening to boycott the network', he said, setting up another punchline. 'Yeah - CBS could lose millions of viewers, plus tens of hundreds watching on Paramount+.' The NBC star then praised Colbert's contributions to the genre, while taking the time to pan Donald Trump for his appearance at the FIFA Club World Cup in New Jersey alongside the winning team Chelsea FC. 'Stephen has done years of incredibly smart and hilarious television, and he's won 10 Emmys,' Fallon said. 'Trump heard and was like, "Big deal, last week I just won a FIFA World Cup trophy." Scroll down for video: 'I'm just as shocked as everyone,' the comic who succeeded short-lived host Conan O'Brien in 2014 continued. 'Stephen is one of the sharpest, funniest hosts to ever do it. I really thought I'd ride this out with him for years to come.' Separately, the host brought up how Trump over the weekend posted on social media to celebrate his first six months in office. 'Most Americans heard and were like, "How has it only been six months?"' Fallon quipped. 'Oh, my gosh! It feels like it's been ten years!' Hours later, Trump would take to Truth Social again - this time to target Fallon and fellow late night star Jimmy Kimmel. He also appeared to take credit for Colbert's ouster, after insiders insisted to publications like Puck and Variety that the reason was purely financial. 'The word is, and it's a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone,' Trump said. 'These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television,' he continued. 'It's really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!' Shortly thereafter, he typed out another message that took CBS and the rest of the legacy media landscape to task, announcing he had reached a settlement with both CBS and its parent Paramount - days after the agreement was actually reached. 'We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount,' Trump wrote. 'Just like ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle.' 'This is another in a long line of VICTORIES over the Fake News Media, who we are holding to account for their widespread fraud and deceit,' Trump wrote. 'The Wall Street Journal, The Failing New York Times, The Washington Post, MSDNC, CNN, and all other Mainstream Media Liars, are ON NOTICE that the days of them being allowed to deceive the American People are OVER.' Trump and CBS reached the $16 million settlement in a suit filed by Trump earlier this month - a sum only slightly more than the $15 million Colbert is said to earn annually. In a piece for Puck, media maven Matthew Belloni outlined how The Late Show - which costs $100million a year to produce - has seen its advertiser revenue slump drastically even in the last three years, making it harder to pull Colbert's show out of the red. Late night shows in general have slumped in profitability as viewers shun the format in favor of streaming services or other means of media. Colbert was reported to be 'not angry, actually' about news of his cancelation, Puck reported - revealing how the host was chatting with his staff in a 'matter-of-fact' way before Thursday's show, shortly after finding out himself. Moreover, Paramount co-C.E.O. George Cheeks was reportedly the one to pull the trigger on the cancellation - not Skydance CEO David Ellison or the former NBCU exec to serve as the new company's CEO once the merger is finished, Jeff Shell. Colbert complained on the air about CBS's settlement with Trump, just days before receiving word of his cancellation. Trump, meanwhile, celebrated the news of the show's cancellation last week as it spread, furthering the idea he played a part. 'I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings," he wrote in a Friday Truth Social post. 'I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert.' CBS execs weighed the pros and cons of canceling the increasingly unprofitable show during its hosts usual summer vacation this month, sources told CNN Friday. They said the move was financially driven even while speaking anonymously, insiders told Puck and Variety Colbert holds the top spot in his hour, with an average of 2.417 million across 41 first-run episodes. Colbert took over as host in September 2015, after Letterman launched the program in 1993. Second-best Jimmy Kimmel Live! takes in an average of 1.772 million viewers, for reference. Fallon averaged 1.188 million viewers for the trio's hour, bringing up the rear. Fallon and Kimmel - whose show airs on ABC - have yet to be cancelled.
Daily Mail
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Who is next after Stephen Colbert? The death of late-night TV... and the unlikely conservative star
The axing of Stephen Colbert 's Late Show has been received as a death knell for late night television - but there's still time for one more rising star before the world of cable TV is eclipsed by TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram reels. CBS and its parent company, Paramount, announced that Colbert's show would 'end its historic run' in May 2026, just over a decade after it first launched. 'We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire the Late Show franchise at that time,' the broadcast executives said. 'We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and his broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.' In fact, Colbert, 61, had the best ratings of all the traditional late-night 11.35pm show hosts before he got the chop. The veteran presenter attracted 2.42 million viewers across 41 first-run episodes - easily outpacing ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! which had 1.77 million, and NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon which had 1.19 million, per LateNighter. According to the TV specialist news site, the Late Show was the only one among nine mainstream programs tracked which drew more viewers in the second quarter of 2025 than the first, with a small audience growth of one percent. So it's no wonder that Colbert's axing has got other left-leaning hosts shaking in their boots. Kimmel, 57, blasted CBS via his Instagram stories. He reposted Colbert's announcement with the caption: 'Love you Stephen. F**k you and all your Sheldons CBS.' Late night talk show host Andy Cohen, 57, also said he was 'stunned' by the news. 'I can't believe CBS is turning off the lights at 11:30 after the local news. I'm stunned. He's one of three late-night shows deemed worthy enough for an Emmy nomination. He produces a brilliant show,' he told Deadline. 'I think it's a sad day for late-night television. I think it's a sad day for CBS. I think Stephen Colbert is a singular talent. He's going to have an incredible next chapter.' While it's likely that Colbert's demise could spark a bonfire of late-night shows like Kimmel's and Cohen's as the younger generation turns to TikTok over TV, there's also an unlikely rising star still attracting viewers to the small screen. Greg Gutfeld on Fox News has been disrupting the TV genre once monopolized by the likes of Colbert, and Seth Meyers, whose Late Night with Seth Meyers show on NBC reigns supreme for post-midnight ratings. Gutfeld! dominated late-night TV ratings in the second quarter of 2025 with an average of three million viewers. This comes with a caveat that the show starts 95 minutes earlier than Colbert's, filling Fox News' 10pm slot, and attracts many of the right-wing network's faithful viewers who watch the network for several hours a day. But it's not all down to timings and Fox's following - as Gutfeld attracted a key demographic of the smartphone generations who are being lost to online media. The show was watched by 365,000 people aged between 25 and 54 in the second quarter of 2025, according to MSN. Gutfeld! has a similar structure to the other late shows, with a monologue, roundtable, recurring gags, and rotating co-hosts, but behind the scenes it's a very different story. The show reportedly runs off a creative team of around 20 people, according to Mediate, making it more authentic than its polished, liberal competitors. As a result, it attracts viewers who wanted real talk over highly-scripted mainstream comedy. The Late Show was also beleaguered by Trump's threats to sue his network, while Fox News enjoyed a post-election boom. Colbert's program was cancelled just days after the host blasted the network's $16 million settlement with President Trump as a 'big fat bribe.' Taking aim at CBS and Paramount Global, Trump's lawsuit accused producers of editing an October interview with Harris to sway public opinion in her favor. The broadcast channel is also facing a probe by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) into whether the interview violated 'news distortion' rules. Complainants said the station broke the law by cherry picking only a portion of Harris' answer to a question about Middle East policy to present her in a favorable light. Trump's lawsuit coincided with a planned $8.4 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance, which requires approval from the FCC. Though the agency is prohibited from censorship or infringing the First Amendment rights of media, broadcasters cannot intentionally distort the news. CBS previously said the complaint aims to turn 'the FCC into a full-time censor of content' which would result in an unconstitutional role and an impossible one for the agency. In January, the FCC's chair Brendan Carr reinstated complaints about the 60 Minutes interview with Harris, as well as complaints about how Walt Disney's ABC News moderated the pre-election TV debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump. It also reinstated complaints against Comcast's NBC for allowing Harris to appear on 'Saturday Night Live' shortly before the election.
Daily Mail
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Johnny Carson's friend shares intimate details about the King of Late Night's final days
The best friend of late night TV host Johnny Carson has revealed the icon was uncharacteristically affectionate towards the end of his life and believes he knew his time was up the last time he saw him. Tech mogul, Howard Smith, spent many dinners sitting across from The Tonight Show host, but the last one was different than all the rest. Carson, who died in January 2005 at the age of 79, had invited Smith and his wife out after catching his friend at a pharmacy in Malibu. He picked the pair up and drove them to a dinner, where they'd spend hours laughing. 'John was the funniest I've ever seen him,' Smith told Fox News. 'He went on and on, told stories about different people that he had on the show… We just laughed so hard.' Previous dinners, they would only spend a few hours together before parting ways, but just days before his death, Carson insisted on keeping everyone out late. 'We were the first people [at the restaurant] and the last to leave,' Smith explained. 'Looking back, there must have been something going on in his head that night. 'At the end of the night, he drives us up to our house, gets out of the car. He gave both my wife Jane and me a kiss and a hug. Then he tells us: "I love you." John was not standoffish, but I'd never seen him do anything like that. 'I think he knew he was dying, but didn't want us to worry.' Carson then took off back home and 16 days later, he passed away. 'When I think about that night, I feel he wanted to tell us that he would be okay, and that he loved us. That's the John I knew,' he told the outlet. Smith also recalled watching his friend deteriorate. The two often played tennis together, but eventually, it switched to coffee at John's after the comedian admitted the physical activity became too much. 'On Saturdays and Sundays, you come over to my house. I'll make you a coffee, and we'll just sit around, talk about life,' he recalled Carson saying. The pair had played tennis multiple times a week and it created a lifelong bond, even if Smith didn't know it at the time. 'I'm still grateful for that day when we first decided to play tennis together,' he told Fox News. Now, Smith has written a book called My Friend Johnny: The Last 20 Years of a Beautiful Life with Johnny Carson and Friends. He wrote the book because he wanted people to see Carson as he had seen him behind the scenes. 'I wanted people to know John – the John I knew,' he said. Carson hosted The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992, which garnered him the nickname King of Late Night. The show won six Emmys. The heavy smoker died of emphysema, a lung condition that causes shortness of breath, in 1999.
