Here's...nobody:  You all know that parts of the entertainment industry are currently shut down by a strike of writers and actors.  (Full disclosure:  I am a member of the Writers Guild of America, which is on strike.) 

Many observers are speculating on what the business will be like after the strike is settled.  One of the most fascinating arenas of speculation involves the late-night talk shows.  They weren't doing well before the strike, and the strike won't do them any good.  There are reasons:  From Fox: 

For several years, The Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City was a hot spot for liberal fans to absorb the latest Trump headlines through what's been dubbed as "clapter," a term that meshes "clapping" and "laughter" to describe the Democrat pep rally-like atmosphere that has taken over late-night audiences.

The theater is the home of CBS's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," which became must-watch television for anti-Trump audiences, overtaking NBC's "Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" as the most-watched late-night program.

Today, however, the Ed Sullivan Theater is collecting dust. That's because the writers strike that began in early May has now reached the three-month mark with no end in sight.

The writers strike (now in tandem with the actors strike) has halted production of movies and TV shows across the entertainment industry. Among the first immediately impacted were the late-night shows including "The Late Show" and "The Tonight Show" as well as "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Late Night with Seth Meyers," "The Daily Show," "Real Time with Bill Maher," "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" and "Saturday Night Live," all of them forced to air re-runs. 

Political satirist Tim Young says their months-long absence makes it "easy to forget" about them.

"Their tired attempts at making funny news-based monologues that were always about Trump had become exhausting and unquotable, so they'd rarely even be covered by entertainment news anymore," Young told Fox News Digital. "Late night shows are so forgettable that I think people have just moved on... they just aren't missed."

Viewership across the late-night landscape had been dropping long before the writers strike. In 2018, the midpoint of Trump's presidency, Colbert averaged 3 million viewers. In 2023, the "Late Show" audience fell to 2.1 million, losing nearly a third of viewers the process. Fallon lost almost half of his audience during the same timeframe, going from an average of 2.3 million viewers in 2018 to 1.3 million in 2023. 

Kimmel, who notably expressed he didn't mind in 2017 if viewers were turned off by his liberal politics, shed roughly half a million viewers since 2018, averaging just 1.5 million this year. 

Other late-night offerings are doing even worse. Seth Meyers's "Late Night" audience has cratered to a 778,000 average following his 1.3 million average five years ago. "The Daily Show," which has rotated guest hosts after Trevor Noah stepped down last year, averaged just 366,000 viewers leading into the strike, losing more than half of viewers since 2018.  

Meanwhile, Fox News' "Gutfeld!" quickly surged since its debut in April 2021 to become one of the most-watched late-night shows, frequently beating Colbert and regularly crushing Kimmel and Fallon. 

The show, hosted by "The King of Late Night" author Greg Gutfeld, is the only late-night offering still airing on television during the writers strike and continues to thrive in its new 10 p.m. ET timeslot, averaging 2 million viewers in a cable news slot.

COMMENT:  Most readers know that I was a talent coordinator, sometimes called segment producer, on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  Carson was the true king of late night because he understood that members of the audience weren't interested in a political lecture.  They were interested in laughing.  He called The Tonight Show a variety show, not a talk show, to emphasize its entertainment mission.  I don't think the staff ever knew Johnny's political views, and no one really cared.

Carson also understood, through the mentoring of his idol, the great comedian Jack Benny, that the whole show had to be good.  Guests were carefully chosen, and Carson did everything he could to make them successful.  They had to be good because the whole show had to be good.

Johnny Carson lasted almost 30 years as host of The Tonight Show. 

I don't mean to diminish any of the hosts today, but I'm really not interested in their inner thoughts about abortion.  And I really won't stay long to watch a show whose guests are known only to those between the ages of seven and twenty-two.

There really is a difference. 

August 6, 2023