In just the last year, at least six different late night comedy shows have ended. Conan O’Brien left Conan on TBS, who also canceled Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Desus & Mero split up, ending their Showtime program. NBC canceled the very late A Little Late with Lilly Singh. Trevor Noah just left The Daily Show a few weeks ago, and James Corden has announced that he’ll leave The Late Late Show later this year. (And let’s not forget HBO Max’s currently disappeared The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo.)
And then there’s Saturday Night Live. Eight cast members left the show before Season 48 premiered in October — including the likes of Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney and Pete Davidson. And then Cecily Strong left last month, too. SNL’s current cast includes four new featured players.
So there’s a lot of churn and change in late night right now. Oh, and here’s one other new thing: The most-watched show in late night comedy at the moment is on, uh … Fox News? (This idea requires a liberal — you see what I did there — definition of “late night.” And maybe “comedy,” too. But still.)
This hour, a look at the current state and possible future of late night.
GUESTS:
- Eric Deggans: NPR’s television critic
- Constance Grady: Senior correspondent on the culture team for Vox
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Colin McEnroe contributed to this show.
