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With The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon officially joining every other late-night show by dropping Fridays from their live schedules, the whole industry is looking for ways to cut costs as audiences cut the cord.
Why It Hits: Late-night shows used to be one of the most dependable cash cows for networks and cable brands, but the rise of on-demand streaming is turning appointment viewing into a relic.
Behind the Curtain: The cut to NBC’s The Tonight Show’s schedule feels like the final nail in the coffin — late night is in trouble.
- Since 2018, late-night shows have lost roughly a third of their linear viewers, with most people opting to watch viral clips on YouTube or TikTok the next day.
- Because most of the linear viewers are older, that’s led to a major drop in ad revenue (advertisers want to reach younger viewers).
- So, it’s belt-tightening time: NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers is relieving its house band, while CBS is simply scrapping The Late Late Show after James Corden left (the show was losing up to $20 million per year).
The Future: Just because late-night shows are slowly shrinking doesn’t mean the hosts are any less important to their networks, especially with talent like Fallon, Kimmel, and Colbert acting as de facto spokespeople for the brands. And as the networks test out fresh talent with revamped formats, maybe the revival of late night is just one hit show away.
Go Deeper: Could John Mulaney’s Everybody’s in LA be streaming’s answer to late night?
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