The Best Of Latenight In 2021
A latenight target throughout his time in office, Donald Trump remained a favorite subject, along with COVID’s ongoing impact and President Biden’s first year in the White House.
CNN’s six-part documentary series The Story of Late Night is a historical deep dive into the origins of the genre that still resonates today as well as a love letter to the medium. It has been overseen by Bill Carter, a man who knows a thing or two about latenight, as the former New York Times media correspondent and author of The War for Late Night and The Late Shift.
Forced to improvise, hosts have returned with radically stripped down productions made from home. Can they keep it feeling fresh — and their kids out of the frame?
Going without an audience “might be a good thing,” said Stephen Colbert, who was out-of-breath after a brief run through the empty seats. “In my mind, all of my jokes are perfect. The only person that ever disagrees with me right now is the audience.”
President Trump thinks latenight comedy is no laughing matter. He slapped back at TV hosts and their snarky monologues on Twitter Saturday morning — and hinted at regulatory retaliation. “Late Night host are dealing with the Democrats for their very ‘unfunny’ & repetitive material, always anti-Trump!” he complained at 8 a.m.. “Should we get Equal Time?”
Exclusives
Stephen Colbert is approaching his own transformative moment, when he will become the second person to host The Late Show, CBS’s marquee late-night franchise, succeeding David Letterman, for whom it was created. Can he shed the ironist’s mask he wore on The Colbert Report and turn himself into the genial master of ceremonies that an 11:35 p.m. network show requires? And can he do it without sacrificing the irreverence and erudition that made his Comedy Central series a welcome antidote to a poisonous political era?
The most prominent evidence of David Letterman’s impact is the reliance of today’s latenight hosts on a playbook that he developed.
When David Letterman walks out of the famously chilly Ed Sullivan Theater for the last time, he will be leaving a latenight landscape that, while brimming with potential and still attracting millions of viewers, is also scrambling to redefine itself in a world where latenight TV shows are increasingly not being watched at night, not for more than a few minutes and not on a TV.
When CBS announced last summer that Stephen Colbert would stay in New York when he takes over Late Show, it wasn’t much of a surprise in Los Angeles, even though Mayor Eric Garcetti had made overtures to lure the show West. In Gotham the production is eligible for $11 million in tax credits and a $5 million grant to offset renovations to the Ed Sullivan theater, where the show is based. Both cities are eager to attract popular latenight franchises.
While the rest of TV catches up to diversity, with fictional portrayals daring to imagine women as U.S. presidents and mirror the reality of an African-American leader, networks simply are unwilling to roll the dice on either a female or minority in the lofty position of latenight host.
The curtain rose this week on a new era of late-night TV — altering the terrain for politicians who frequent the shows and complicating life for Republicans, who have lost their most comfortable seat in front of the camera.
NEW YORK (AP) — Seth Meyers says former comedy colleague Fred Armisen will lead the band when he takes over NBC’s “Late Night.” Meyers tweeted Monday that his former “Saturday […]
NBC In Talks With Alec Baldwin For Latenight
The Emmy-winning actor is in the mix for a spot in NBC’s latenight lineup, one executive involved in the network’s program planning says. The most likely landing place for Baldwin would be in the slot of the latest of NBC’s entries, Last Call, the half-hour interview program currently hosted by Carson Daly.
CTD Hopes Arsenio Can Win Younger Demo
With the competition on ABC, CBS and NBC all skewing 50-plus, CBS Television Distribution is betting 35-54 viewers remembers Arsenio Hall and will welcome him back to latenight. If Arsenio siphons off African-American viewers for his broadcast competitors, it will most likely be at the expense of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel’s adult 18-49 rating was a 0.8 among African Americans compared to 0.5 among all adults 18-49.
With Jimmy Kimmel’s move to 11:35, latenight television now has three entertainment talk shows on the traditional broadcast networks.
