Late Night Partisanship

The other day I was talking with friends about what they thought of late night television. I have to admit that I don't watch it because it is on too late for my taste. Plus to be honest, because of the partisanship I won't "DVR" it because it is a waste of space on the disc. But my friends were adamant that the late night hosts were only giving the people what they want. I laughed at this because it certainly wasn't what I wanted; I just want to be entertained and made to forget about the current day's catastrophes. 

Back in the days of Johnny Carson, the standards were much higher; the hosts were actually professional and wanted to attract as many views as possible. Specifically, Johnny knew that in order to pull in the viewers he was (10 million weekly), he needed to attract both sides of the political aisle.

Not so much these days. And I would say for various reasons that would include hubris of the host, and creating shows that attract people in NYC and LA; the well over 100 channels available on cable and satellite, thus offering more choices; the blind partisanship and blatant liberal bias of the hosts. Partner this with the host not caring if he insults, demeans, or denigrates anyone on the other side of the ideological aisle (re: conservatives), you then get shows the shows that are currently on late night television.

An interesting read: From Carson to Kimmel: the collapse of the late-night empire

Numbers wise, Carson was able to pull in about 10 million viewers per week; almost 20 million when he announced he was retiring. These days late night hosts take a victory lap when they attract 2–3 million viewers a week.

So what happened? Late Night host stopped caring about anyone who had a different political opinion and just wanted to entertain those who agreed with them. Which means that they have lost almost half of their possible viewing audience, all to take cheap shots at the president.