Opinion: Late-night television's golden age is over

CNN ^ | 8/19/22 | Bill Carter

[Varsity Flight]

Because tv is dead.
Deceit is a lie.
And the Spirit says out.

[justme4now]

👍👍👍👍👍

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

That’s about when I could start watching again. I watched a few times and that was it.

[MinorityRepublican]

That’s about when I could start watching again. I watched a few times and that was it.

Yep you've missed nothing. Now all the late night show hosts are elitist. They have nothing in common with the average American.

[bobcat62]

You can find some of those Carson guests on YouTube if you look around.

[Jyotishi]

We had actual writers then.

[Falconspeed]

“The golden age ended with the retirement of Jay Leno.” Rather, the golden age ended when Jay Leno refused to retire and refused to hand the golden age to Conan. Big mistake. Leno killed late night tv by staying on, Conan got stuck on TBS, and then inverted people took over for Letterman and Leno. Leno and Letterman re-runs will never be interesting.

[MinorityRepublican]

Conan’s too quirky for The Tonight Show. Anyway, it had to end because there are more entertainment options. It’s still on NBC now but who cares when you have Netflix?

[citizen]

I still watch Johnny Carson every weekday night.

[minnesota_bound]

#21 I did too back in the early 1980’s with a 8ft then a 10ft dish antenna. My neighbors could tell I was watching tv as my antenna would swing back and forth !

Later they scrambled the tv signals but you could buy kits to unscramble.

[minnesota_bound]

#33 Johnny Carson is on the free Pluto tv app that you can add to your Roku device. You can also watch it on the computer.
https://pluto.tv/en/live-tv/johnny-carson-tv

[gymbeau]

Thanks!

[Albion Wilde]

The Golden Age ended sometime in the last century.

Yep. The Johnny Carson Show ran from 1962 to 1992.

[Albion Wilde]

Craig Ferguson was pretty good though.

I adored Craig's show in spite of his cringy moments—a true original. But I suspect he is an acquired taste, since he is very intelligent and, for all the hilarity, has a hard time covering it up. Many people are suspicious of and hostile to high intelligence. Look how they treat DJT.

I still watch Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson reruns on YouTube from time to time.

[Albion Wilde]

I could never understand why both coasts run their local news at 11:00, while for “flyover country” it’s always been at 10:00.

Flyover country was more geared to agricultural life, where early rising is necessary, and ergo early to bed as well. The power centers of media and office work on the urban coasts used to start work at 9:00 AM in the last century, before universal 24/7 global communications. By the 90s, opening bell had sneaked up to 8:00 AM.

Now, with Tivo, streaming and remote work, any sort of time-slots attached to TV programming will become less and less meaningful. I hope they keep most of the obscenity off the air when schoolchildren are awake; but it is creeping into everything.

[Albion Wilde]

Dick Cavett is still around. At age 85, Dick is almost as old as Crazy Nancy.

I believe I saw him pictured at the funeral for James Gandolfini a few years ago. Surprised me. He has really stayed quiet, except for some Broadway and off-Broadway. I understand he suffers from depression. He also is friendly with Colbert, Katie Couric and Woody Allen, so.... lost cause.

[George from New England]

You can still find Carson on many off-the-air TV markets. Just look on the sub channels. In Tampa its 10.2 or 8.2

[1Old Pro]

How many people getting up to work at 5am or 6am after working to 6pm or 7pm and then cooking for the kids are watching TV at midnight?

[PhineasSpear]

For me, it ended when Letterman when full blown left in ‘08 , for the devil , barack hussein. All the other shows, except Leno, followed in his footsteps.