When Late-Night Lost the Plot

There was a time  —  not all that long ago  —  when late-night TV was where you went to shake off the day. 

Maybe you’d had a rough time at work, maybe your kids were driving you nuts, maybe you were just tired and needed a laugh before bed. 

You could count on Letterman to raise an eyebrow at the absurd, Leno to roll out the headlines, or Conan to descend into delightful madness. 

No matter what was going on in the world, these hosts helped us end the day together, with a chuckle and a shared sense of “yeah, life’s weird, isn’t it?”

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But somewhere along the way, it all changed.

Stephen Colbert, fresh off his brilliant run as a political satirist on The Colbert Report, joined CBS just as Donald Trump was stumbling into politics. 

Someone somewhere must’ve realized they could bottle Colbert’s genuine irritation into ratings gold. And it worked  —  for a while. His pointed monologues caught fire. 

Suddenly, Jimmy Kimmel, not wanting to be outdone, veered hard into political territory, too. 

Even Jimmy Fallon, who once built a brand out of being the goofy, puppy-loving, beer-drinking bro of late-night, couldn’t entirely escape the gravitational pull of politics.

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And just like that, the whole vibe changed.

Late-night stopped being a place to unwind and started feeling like a cable news afterparty. It became less about laughing with each other and more about laughing at each other. 

The jokes weren’t about shared experiences anymore  —  they were about scoring points. 

If you weren’t laughing, you were probably the punchline. And if you were the punchline, why would you stick around?

That’s where it all went sideways.

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Because, for all the self-congratulating about being on “the right side of history,” the truth is that late-night used to unite people. 

You didn’t need to agree with everything to enjoy watching a celebrity read mean tweets or a host poke fun at everyone equally. 

But once it became a nightly sermon to the choir, the choir got smaller. The audience fractured. And in their place? People found new ways to unwind.

We watch old sitcoms, tumble down YouTube rabbit holes, or scour Instagram for reels of people falling down. 

It turns out, we still want to laugh. We just don’t want to be told who to laugh at  —  or what to believe  —  while we do it.

Late-night didn’t just lose its way. It lost us.

And maybe we’re not coming back.

Are you a fan of late-night TV? Did it lose the plot, or am I the assh*le here? Weigh in below!

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