It wasn’t that long ago that each of the “big three” broadcast networks, as well as Comedy Central and TBS on cable, aired two original late-night shows back-to-back most weeknights. (NBC, the birthplace and perennial leader in late-night television, aired three.)
Some of these shows were true classics, hosted by the likes of David Letterman and Conan O’Brien.
Looking back, that was certainly peak late night. With the news yesterday that CBS is shuttering its 12:37am entry, After Midnight, next season that roster will be down to two: Kimmel and Nightline on ABC, and Fallon and Meyers on NBC.
After Midnight was an effort, and a respectable one, to find a new format for a late-night show, one that didn’t cost as much as traditional iterations. It looked like it was working, with an audience proportionately younger than much of the rest of late night, including the show’s lead-in, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which usually has the largest overall audience among the broadcast network entries.
After Midnight also had an emerging star as its host, Taylor Tomlinson, who looked to be breaking broadcast TV’s longstanding allergy to female-centered editions in the late hours.
I interviewed Tomlinson just two months ago and she offered no hints of moving on from the show. She sounded completely enthused with changes in the format, mainly the addition of a monologue for her.
The explanation now is that she decided she wanted to go back to touring her comedy act, more than just on weekends.
In our conversation she said she was happy the Midnight schedule—which taped four shows Monday through Wednesday—allowed her ample time to continue to tour.
So maybe it came down to, as it has for repeated late-night shows in recent years, that pesky profit-loss thing.
Whatever the reason, losing a star like Tomlinson is a blow to late night, at least at the increasingly antiquated broadcast TV level. John Mulaney joined the diminishing crowd with a new weekly try just three weeks ago on Netflix.
And Jon Stewart came back to his star-making perch at The Daily Show and has announced his intention to continue his once-a-week appearances as host through at least the end of this year.
Maybe that will prove to be relevant elsewhere going forward.
Right now, CBS has declared itself out of the double-header late-night business for the first time in 30 years. Which is surely a blow to both the format and that network. Once a comfortable source of extra profit after the network’s long-running leading man in late night, Letterman, as well as a launching pad for successful performers like Craig Ferguson and James Corden, the 12:37am time period appears to have become fallow ground for the networks.
Is there an opportunity for CBS here? It has become essential for late-night shows to find outlets to “repurpose” their output, in the form of clips on YouTube and social media and on streaming services like Peacock for NBC and Paramount + for CBS.
Bill Maher’s HBO show Real Time has found a second home on CNN, which may not have seemed like a fit at first, but now with CNN trying its own shot at panel comedy with Have I Got News for You, it makes perfect sense.
Here’s an idea that also makes perfect sense: Why not fill the hole left by the departure of After Midnight with same-night replays of The Daily Show?
People who miss the show on Comedy Central can already watch it replayed on Paramount+, but that requires a subscription fee.
The natural fit is there: Comedy Central and CBS are owned by the same entity, Paramount Global. In fact, before it was Paramount+, the service was called CBS All Access.
At the moment, the future of TDS is in some question, or more accurately, the future of Comedy Central is. As Stewart himself noted recently, TDS is virtually the only consistent, year-round, original programming on the network, which is otherwise heavily dependent on re-runs of The Office.
The Daily Show is such an iconic franchise at this point it seems inevitable it would wind up somewhere no matter what happens to Comedy Central. But putting a second run on a broadcast network, with different commercial time for sale, seems like it would only serve to ensure the show’s future.
In the past, a network canceling a show in late night might mean a time grab by affiliated stations. But the idea of putting on syndicated shows—often expensive and of lower quality—instead of an offering the network is paying for, feels antiquated (like most of over-the-air television).
A Daily Show replay is almost surely going to do better at 12:37am than a talk show with a faded celebrity or re-runs of The Golden Girls. And it’s only a half-hour, so the stations would get that last half hour of network time back anyway.
Beyond every other way it fits, it would also reunite the Stewart-Colbert team (on Mondays, anyway)—only in reverse order.
And it could still play on Paramount+ for those who have abandoned linear television completely.
This is not a prediction: who knows what the network business is doing anymore. And it is almost certainly no stroke of genius. If the idea hasn’t already occurred to the folks running these networks, they are worse off than anyone thought. Stay tuned.
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Love Tomlinson but always the show. It was awful from the beginning. Surprised it even passed all the tests to get that far.
Daily Show always welcomed, anywhere and anytime.
Dunno.,…re-runs of Golden Girls already gets higher viewership than The Daily Show.
How about a FOX News and CBS partnership where the 12:35a goes to re-airings of Gutfeld!, an actually funny show that get far more viewers than Jon Leibowitz.
lol….Gutfeld, the King of non-comedy…no, just keep him in the right-wing bubble…that’s the only place cons succeed…try anything mainstream (see Megyn Kelly) and they’re rejected quickly
If it was the Gutfeld from 2007-13 maybe it would work. Watched him for the first time in a while on FNC and he’s become surly, arrogant and has an odd fixation on Brian Stelter. He acts like he’s still a rebel but that’s been gone since he left RedEye and threw Andy and Bill under the bus.
Gutfield only works on FOX News, the sheep that watch that channel, pretty much watch no other TV.
Yeah, but there’s some complexities.
For one, they’d need to edit the show twice: once for the more relaxed cable standards (not much), and then for the FCC-regulated airwaves. A minor addition, but an addition nonetheless (absolutely cheaper than a whole new show!) and who knows if whole segments would be deemed too much for broadcast television.
Plus, as Jon spoke in his same monologue that TDS is basically the only show on CC, the show’s runtime can be however long it needs to be on cable as CC is bound only to itself. The nights Jon hosts seem to all be an hour, then the corespondents get a half-hour the rest of the week. Wouldn’t they need to firmly set the runtime if they have to deal with affiliates and their time? Plus what happens with live shows? That’s a very short timeframe to deal with the edit, unless live shows would just not repeat that night on CBS.
And then there’s the contractual issue: wouldn’t there be something in Jon’s contract that says where the show will be and what time it would air? (Maybe not: that’s how Conan lost his 11:35 Tonight Show). Is that easy to amend? Not to mention the awkward reversal mentioned that Colbert would now be his former boss’s lead-in.
Plus, there’s the carriage agreement with CC and cable operators. I wonder if this would cause some red flags for them seeing as a viewer would only need to wait an hour and a half to see the show on broadcast versus cable, further devaluing cable, whereas TDS airs the next day on P+ where it’s arguably less desirable and therefore not a concern for cable operators. I wonder how that would work.
I say all this just out of curiosity in how they’d manage it, but it’s a great idea. Like CBS airing Yellowstone and the other Paramount IP, it’s very smart to add value to broadcast by airing their popular IP from other parts of the company while sharing it with the one area of the company that is very profitable. CBS gets content while saving some money in the budget, and the IP gets more revenue by airing more. Plus, I’d imagine TDS’s budget has shrunk with the more limited and decaying cable audience. This would add more revenue for the show while again giving CBS another time slot to save a ton of money while making money.
The question is how long before cable reaches the point of no return: when will its decay be too much, either far too few homes subscribed, or cable carriers refusing to pay any of a far reduced carriage fee. CC for sure relies on that carriage fee to exist with dwindling ad revenue. At that point, TDS will need a new home, and streaming has proven difficult to find an audience for a talk show. This would give them the time to get 12:30 viewers acquainted with the show airing then, and further the life of the show. I just wonder what it’d do to Seth, whose show has been quoted as the TDS for people without cable (at least his monologue and A Closer Look). TDS would be a solid competitor to Nightline and Seth so it all certainly makes sense.
Just bring back Craig Ferguson! It would be a great day for America!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Bring back Chris Hardwick. Do @Midnight properly, in the Comedy Central original format
yes,show the The Daily Sow after Colbert!
that would be awesome!!?
that would be awesome!!
Yes! Do It!!!