Posted on 11/19/2015 6:43:58 PM PST by Colonel_Flagg
For Stephen Colbert, the late-night honeymoon appears to be over.
The dose of reality comes upon tracking the last three weeks available on the ratings front. But first, a quick review of where we were and how we got here on the late-night competition front: outside of Colbert's opening week, NBC's Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show have beaten his CBS competition every week with plenty of room to spare. No surprise there, as even CBS execs concede they had no illusions of beating Fallon as Colbert and The Late Show find their groove. But that's not to say Colbert has disappointed anyone at the Tiffany Network, either, finishing a solid second ahead of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel in both total viewers and the demo in September and much of October.
Most importantly for Colbert, he's found a niche in offering what the Jimmys can't really offer (particularly Fallon): consistent political satire and more substantive interviews with big political guests (his interview with Joe Biden as the vice president openly displayed his inner conflict on running for for president was widely-praised in this space and pretty much everywhere else). But therein lies the rub: most sit-downs with politicians don't exactly result in riveting television (outliers like Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton to a lesser extent notwithstanding). And Colbert has shown almost no willingness to hit both sides of the aisle even close to equally...it's simply not in his DNA.
Consequently, according to a Hollywood Reporter poll just released, Colbert has successfully alienated self-described Republicans who see what’s being offered on a nightly basis and exploring or staying with other options. And with the country as polarized as it is, the host is thereby saying goodbye to half his potential audience, which can't be a sound business model.
(Excerpt) Read more at mediaite.com ...
The Nixon, Gene Mccarthy, inflation and gas line jokes are probably hilarious. ;-)
I rarely watch any of the late-night shows (and then only briefly) but about a week ago I caught a bit of Kimmel when he was interviewing some kids (2 boys and 2 girls), asking them questions about having a woman President, when lo and behold her Royal Heinous Hillary Clinton appeared and started talking to the kids. None of the kids ran out of the room screaming so Kimmel must have screened them to make sure their parents were Democrats.
bump for later
Colbert is an irritating clod. A boorish and unfunny dolt is he.
Not kidding. Hanoi Jane is on tonight.
I think it used to be a television network.
Not on my TV she isn’t. And I trust, not on yours either.
Colbert’s conservative stepin fetchit character is funny like making fun of crippled vets is funny. He’s a true American treasure.
No, I’ve never watched Colbert...no cable when he was on there and no desire to see him now. I just saw the promos earlier tonight.
I don’t actually watch Fallons show but I’ve seen some of the clips and I liked some. The band caricatures, the trump impression. But I find him very sad, throwing away such a great chance with drugs.
I don’t watch Kimmel either but when I see him anywhere he is straightforward.
And I can’t watch the Colbert character for more than 5 seconds. I am allergic to phony.
"Conservative stepin fetchit"...that's an excellent way of describing that character. I wish I would have thought of that myself.
Colbert will be around for a while for several reasons. First, he makes less than half of what Letterman was making at the end of his tenure. At one point, Letterman was pulling down more than $25 million a year, but as his ratings continued to tank, he made less on successive deals with CBS. Still, his final paycheck was somewhere between $15-20 million a year for a show that was often in third place behind Fallon and Kimmel.
Which brings us to reason #2. Letterman produced the program for CBS, which made him a profit participant. CBS had to share the ad revenue with Letterman’s production company and even pay for some of the production costs. Those expenses cut into profits even more. The network owns Colbert’s show; he is nothing more than a well-paid employee. So, even with lower ratings, CBS can actually make more money off the program simply because of the “new” financial arrangements.
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