The Case for Late Night

Well this sucks.

Stephen Colbert announced on Thursday that not only would he be leaving the late-night sphere, but that The Late Show as a whole would cease to be. Combined with the cancellation of After Midnight, CBS has now voluntarily withdrawn from post-news programming altogether. Former CBS president Howard Stringer, who launched The Late Show back in 1993, must be rolling in his grave. (He is alive, but still.)

Late night was once such a vital and lucrative jewel in a network’s crown that bidding wars would erupt to get the best and must gorgeous guy for the 11:30 p.m. slot. Now things are grave. Nobody’s watching nothing no more, and advertisers are taking note. Late night is just YouTube, and YouTube doesn’t have a pay-or-play contract.

There is much speculation that shitcanning Colbert is a retaliatory move on Skydance/Paramount’s part after Colbert criticized the network’s handling of the Trump lawsuit. That’s possible. But late night has been in serious jeopardy for a minute. From the farewell for Late Night’s band to The Tonight Show losing one night of Tonight, it’s been grim. And that’s not even taking into consideration the continual jerking around of Busy Philipps. It sucks! Here’s why.

Late night is a platform for celebs to humanize themselves

The moment all scholars point to as the end of the late-night wars is 1995, when Hugh Grant went on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and mea culpa’d about whoring around Sunset Boulevard. That is still a major function of late night, comebacks for celebrities. Or just moments where they can be “real.” Think of Drew Barrymore flashing David Letterman. Or Brad Pitt doing Frisbee golf with Jimmy Fallon. Joaquin Phoenix went on TheLate Show With David Letterman to be weird and off-putting for a documentary. And 20-ish years later, where did he do his mea culpa? The Late Show.

It’s a way to introduce new celebs to a bigger audience

Late night is still making semi-famous folks for-real famous. Meg Stalter did her thing on The Late Show this week. So many comedians got their first credit doing stand-up on late night. Here’s the dang-ass truth: We need new famous people. It’s like Congress. If the top is congested with olds, nothing happens and we’re all sad. Do you want the same old famouses in everything all the time? Chris Pratt voicing every cartoon character until the heat death of the universe? I don’t think you do!

Broadway shows can commit their big numbers to posterity

This is a very unsung value of late night, not to make a big pun about it or whatever. Since Rosie O’Donnell’s daytime show ended, the main places Broadway’s luminaries re-create their big showstoppers to entice middle America are: (1) the Today show, (2) the Thanksgiving Day parade, or (3) late night. Late night is also a space for Broadway stars to give interviews for flyover country. Cole Escola has taken a seat on many a late-night couch in service of Oh, Mary!. If even one gay teen in Idaho’s life is changed, it will have been worth it.

Catharsis!

Have you noticed the world is sad and also hard to live in? Late night has. The boos and woos of an average ep of Jimmy Kimmel Live! so closely mirror that of the WWE that the two completely intersected on Wednesday this week. Ever since Letterman, Jon Stewart, and SNL took point on America processing 9/11, this has been a huge societal function of late night. We are all desperate for connection, for someone else to agree that This Is Not Normal, and late night provides that — this week, in fact, it was Amber Ruffin on Late Night. We don’t need capitalism destroying yet another important societal function now, do we?

Baby’s first TV-writing gig

I’m just gonna name writers who got their professional start on one late-night show or another. Simpsons showrunner Al Jean, Conan O’Brien (not his show, another show), plus a sizable chunk of golden-era Simpsons writers; Robert Smigel; Demi Adejuyigbe; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s Rodney Rothman; Brian Stack; Aubrey Plaza, if you count the NBC page program and I do; John Krasinski and Mindy Kaling, along with, like, half of The Office staff in front of and behind the camera; Amy Poehler; Amy Sedaris; Mike Birbiglia; Chris Elliott; Ross Mathews; Ben Schwartz; Wanda Sykes; Nick Wiger; countless comedians you should and will know; and Conner O’Malley. Ever heard of them? Late night is a proving ground for people who have so many dumb, funny ideas in their brains. It extracts those ideas like a cold-press juicing machine. Do you really want to stop the juice, CBS? Please don’t. The juice must flow.