A New Generation of Late Night Hosts are No-Shows

The next generation of late-night talent like Taylor Tomlinson, Trevor Noah, and Roy Wood are opting for a career that doesn’t keep them behind the desk.

Why It Hurts: A cushy late-night gig used to be the most prestigious job in comedy (it’s literally the premise of the next season of Hacks). But as the gig loses its luster and audience, a new generation of talent has decided that stand-up tours, podcasts, and other forms of DTC media are more financially and culturally rewarding.

Behind the Desk: Maybe comics just don’t like staying up late…

• Taylor Tomlinson decided not to return for a third season of CBS’s After Midnight. The network has decided not to replace her, choosing instead to shut down the show.
• Tomlinson said that, “juggling touring and hosting the show has become unsustainable, and I’ve made the difficult decision to step away, so I can focus on stand-up.”
• Trevor Noah surprised everyone (including Comedy Central execs) when he announced his departure from The Daily Show in 2022 after seven years.
• Roy Wood was the favorite to replace Noah (after the firing of Hasan Minhaj), but he stepped down as a correspondent when Comedy Central couldn’t make a firm decision.
• The only comedian left in the game is now John Mulaney with his new Netflix talk show… but it’s still early days, so there’s no saying how long he’ll stick around.

The Future: What looms over these departures is that the legacy late-night shows are all being squeezed — budget cuts by the networks, show and staff reductions, and an audience who now prefers to just watch clips on social media the next day. It feels like the late-night host is a dying breed… which is why Conan O’Brien seems to have ditched his TBS show when he saw the writing on the wall (he’s doing quite well for himself).

While late night has explored format changes and media spinoffs that lean into the new on-demand culture of TV to stay relevant, it may simply be that the new crown-bearers of late night are the internet-native shows that ditched time slots altogether.