The Tumult and Triumph of Late-Night Television in 2025

There have been years when late-night television made a lot of headlines: Carson retiring; Letterman leaving NBC for CBS; the three-ring Conan circus surrounding his fraught departure from NBC.

But that was showbiz. The headlines late night made in 2025 crossed over deeply into national and political news, as the increasingly bitter war between the Trump Administration and those resisting its efforts to squash every form of opposition—especially in terms of free speech—found a ferocious battlefront in the exchanges between late-night comics and the President of the United States.

The results were something close to a draw.

At least four hosts were personally targeted; one was canceled (though not until May 2026). He and the rest are still standing—and talking—including one who found his way to No. 3 among Google’s most trending people worldwide in 2025. (The new pope came in two slots below, at No. 5.)

That’s Jimmy Kimmel, whose refusal to cave when he and his network, ABC, were openly threatened with reprisals by Trump’s FCC nearly cost him his job.

In a year when pusillanimous caving was in fashion in business, academia, legal circles, and journalism, that was enough to thrust Kimmel into the role of champion for free speech.

Trump continued to hammer away at Kimmel, as well as Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, and he likely will until the buttons on his cell phone wear out.

The biggest negative late-night news of the year was certainly CBS’s decision—under murky circumstances attached to its takeover by Paramount—to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and with it, the network’s entire commitment to late night.

That was a massive blow to the genre. CBS’s other entry, After Midnight, was already shut down following the voluntary departure of its host Taylor Tomlinson. In its stead, CBS sold its late-night time to comic and entrepreneur Byron Allen to fill with his long-running, non-topical show Comics Unleashed. (Allen has already expressed interest in taking over Colbert’s slot after the network’s 33-year-old Late Show franchise closes up shop in mid-2026.)

One saving grace for the ill-treated Colbert: his show won the Emmy, unquestionably helped by backlash across the entertainment world against Trump.

In addition to that big news, the year was filled with an extra-heavy dose of highlights and lowlights for late night.

Jon Stewart re-upped his contract with The Daily Show, keeping his hugely influential—and hilarious—voice on Comedy Central once a week. Not to mention the benefit of sustaining the Daily Show franchise, which continues to produce potent topical satire as well as new comic stars like this year’s breakout, Josh Johnson.

John Oliver won yet another Emmy for his HBO show. Bill Maher made major news on his by dining with the re-elected Trump and finding him generous and accommodating, which he took as a sign that maybe Americans didn’t have to “hate each other every minute.”

He didn’t flinch from taking Trump on later, though, especially over the brutal tactics of his ICE Brigade:

“You know what? Obama deported a lot of people, too. He just didn’t do it by being an a**hole. By being a thug. By being masked. By tackling people. By being cruel—sending them to other countries to, like, basically consign them to this kind of hell of the worst kind of prisons in the world.”

On NBC, Seth Meyers found himself repeatedly inside Trump’s social media bullseye, to the tune of: “Aside from everything else, Meyers has no talent, and NBC should fire him, IMMEDIATELY!”

That Trump attack was reposted by his FCC chair and consigliere, Brendan Carr, who had not learned his lesson from the Kimmel confrontation that abusing free-speech rights is not popular.

Meyers, a strong counterpuncher, happily noted Trump was posting about a repeat episode that he had already attacked him for.

NBC didn’t cancel him.

Jimmy Fallon remained the host least committed to the Trump Resistance, emphasizing his non-political talents as an alternative. Not that it mattered to the guy in the White House, who in July called Fallon “that moron on NBC who ruined the once-great Tonight show.”

He of course preferred his unwavering defender on Fox News, Greg Gutfeld, who ventured out of the right-wing bubble to guest with Fallon—and brought Jimmy his best ratings in two years.

Though not often the center of his monologues, Fallon’s Trump jokes—like Melania’s complaints about construction noise at the White House: “Must be loud because she lives 200 miles away”—were always heavily featured on his popular digital media posts.

Amid the surge in popularity for his show, Kimmel suffered a deep personal loss with the death of his bandleader and lifelong friend Cleto Escobedo III.

Surely the late-night show with the loudest moments in 2025 was Saturday Night Live, which cemented its iconic place in American entertainment and culture with a weeks-long celebration of its 50th anniversary on the air.

The multiple documentaries, musical specials, a feature film, and the ultimate 50th anniversary show itself may have eclipsed, in terms of national attention, the British celebrations of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 (even though she had put in 70 years of work).

Not coincidentally, SNL announced that it would participate in the launch sometime next year of its first sanctioned English-language international version, SNL UK. No premiere date yet.

But for all the attention (and Trumpian opprobrium) showered on late night in 2025, arguably no single late-night figure had a more triumphant year than Conan O’Brien, the lamented bygone host of a now-acclaimed run of late-night series on NBC and TBS.

Conan put in the most-praised performance as host of the Oscars since the Billy Crystal days, reminding his late-night fans that he has lost none of his signature brilliance for inspired wit and silliness in equal measure.

Then he went out and made the annual Mark Twain Comedy Prize show an overall highlight of the television year.

That Conan will be back as host makes the Oscars another guaranteed must-watch in 2026.

Summing up all that action, attention, sturm und drang, what was the bottom-line message for late-night television this turbulent year?

It remains challenged but vital, much like the nation it comments on at bedtime.

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