Josh Johnson’s Breakout Week Offers a Glimmer of Hope for Late Night

Amid the swirling clouds of doom hanging over late-night television, both financial and political, one question has been inescapable:

Is there a future at all for this venerable and celebrated genre of television?

There always was in the past, when big stars like Carson and Letterman left the arena, because new comic talent, fresh voices, were in the wings ready to step right into the spotlight and make whatever show hired them roll on.

Traditionally, the executives who ran the networks’ late-night business always kept one eye on the bottom line and the other on the line of succession. Lately their vision seems to have blurred in both eyes.

But maybe they’ve found a tiny spritz of Visine?

Josh Johnson hosted The Daily Show for the first time last week. And yes, a guy who has made his name as a YouTube phenomenon looked and sounded like he might be able to reverse the recent formula and become a television star.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This was not a coronation. It was a trial run, with Johnson, who has been a “correspondent” on the show only since last year, taking his first turn as a rest-of-the-week host following the show’s Monday showcase for Jon Stewart.

And it only makes him one of a rotating band of correspondent-hosts on the show, all the rest of whom are talented and have done good work themselves.

But if those executives stumbling around in the dark reaching out for any object they could grab onto were hoping for a sliver of light, there was this: Johnson’s first foray as Daily Show host was a ratings winner, pulling in the best numbers this season of any episode not hosted by Stewart. That was promising enough.

Much more eye-opening was Johnson’s performance among an audience now close to being categorized as an endangered species on linear television: younger viewers.

Johnson’s first night attracted more viewers in the 18–49 age subset—the arena the big ad money has always called home—than any other Daily Show episode this season, including the ones hosted by Stewart.

Not only that, but Johnson also beat all of the other late-night shows in that young viewer category.

Historically speaking, of course, Johnson’s 226,000 viewers aged 18–49 isn’t exactly a youthquake. Still, a win is a win.

At least as significantly, Johnson gave a rock-solid performance as host all week. First-time late-night hosts are often plagued by jumpiness, discomfort in delivery, awkwardness in guest chat, and just regular inexperience.

Johnson showed little to none of that.

As a stand-up he has a laid-back, conversational delivery, not the punch-punch-punch delivery of hard Daily Show jokes based off the day’s news.

The change in tempo didn’t seem to throw him at all. One great joke from Wednesday night began with the setup that Trump intends to negotiate a far steeper drop in drug prices than he previously promised, with the president telling reporters “we’re going to get them down 1,000%, 600%, 500%, 1,500%.” Johnson pointed out that a 100% discount would mean the drugs are free, while 1000% would mean they have to pay you.

Johnson: “Next year’s Forbes billionaires list is just going to be a bunch of dudes with leukemia.”

A well-written joke, perfectly delivered.

Thursday night, after acting befuddled that Attorney General Pam Bondi couldn’t make a public appearance because of a torn cornea (“Does a torn cornea mean you can’t talk?”), Johnson said:

“The only member of the Trump Administration who I would believe has an eye injury is FBI Director Kash Patel.” Cut to Patel’s often ridiculed official Department of Defense photo.

“He always looks like he just saw the Epstein files.”

The material itself was strong all week, but Johnson killed with it. The Daily Show’s studio audience is not necessarily packed with Johnson’s fans from YouTube. Shots of the crowd tend to reveal a more seasoned-looking lot.

The laughs were totally earned.

As for interviews, on Tuesday Johnson interviewed author Rob Franklin on his book Great Black Hope, which covers issues of class, race, and privilege. He opened by saying what he really wanted to talk to Franklin about was “tall privilege.” Did he feel it, did he walk around with it, was he aware of it?

The tallish Franklin, totally disarmed, took the question seriously and acknowledged he was aware of it but wasn’t exactly sure how tall he really is. The flabbergasted, and not especially tall, Johnson said this was like “people with money saying, ‘guys, money’s not real.’”

He then conducted a thoroughly prepared and sophisticated interview about the book and its themes.

In what’s sure to be music to his legion of fans, the inside word is we’ll be seeing more of Johnson behind the desk in the coming months. We’ll take the good news where we can get it.

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