Late-night television is ingrained in our culture. From comedic sketches to serious political debates, the wide range of topics covered on these shows makes them dynamic in nature. Each show is characterized by its own format and style for each segment, and thus each show has various pros and cons. Here’s a closer look at late-night shows from some of the most popular television networks.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon:
Holding the first late-night television spot on NBC, Jimmy Fallon had big shoes to fill when the show premiered in August of 2014. One thing that works effectively for Fallon is staying relatively out of politics compared to other late-night hosts. Although he’s been criticized for avoiding such topics, politics doesn’t seem to suit his cheerful and light-hearted persona; he’s well known as the host who laughs the most. As a result, it’s refreshing to see him stay away from politics, and it makes Fallon’s show stand out. He’s also great at leading the conversation with guests on his show and making them feel comfortable. However, what detracts from this sit-down format with his guests is how frequently he’ll interrupt the story or punchline to ask the guests questions for clarification. Such questions often seem scripted or inauthentic and often take away from the guests’ story or punchline.
Late Night with Seth Meyers:
There aren’t many negative things to say about Meyers’ show. There is typically an amiable atmosphere surrounding guests, and his talent as a former head writer of SNL shines through in his comedic segments. The segment ‘A Closer Look’ is one of my personal favorites since the informative bits and comedic snippets of his opinion are relatively separate and yet complement each other. It’s easy to understand what’s fact and what’s his opinion, even if you don’t agree with his political views. He also does a fantastic job when interviewing his guests by stepping back and letting the guest perform their own comedic bits.
A Little Late with Lilly Singh:
This show, which premiered just last year in September, is perhaps one of the more infamous late-night shows due to its host, YouTuber Lilly Singh. Lilly is helping pave the way for minorities in late-night television and she’s the first women of color and openly bisexual person to host a late night television show. However, she has faced a lot of criticism for her repetitive jokes that seem to be targeted at white men, resulting in a lot of viewers feeling as if she lacks creativity in her content. She has frequently been accused of stealing jokes, and the punchlines of her original jokes seem to always be related to her race. In my opinion, rather than proving herself as an individual who can be known for her comedy, she is known solely by her title as the female host that takes occasional jabs at white men. She has great potential to become one of the funniest hosts due to her background as a YouTuber comedian, but she seems to be unresponsive to criticism. She constantly tweets about videos on YouTube that criticize her show and, in the midst of this criticism, had a segment where she dances to hate comments. Since this doesn’t always sit well with her audience, her ratings have been plummeting and now it is uncertain that she will have a second season.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert:
Since the show The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert has become well-known for his politically charged yet comedic late-night segments and monologues. Colbert tends to be more interactive with the audience and doesn’t spend his entire monologue looking directly at the camera compared to other late-show hosts. Thus, it feels more like a conversation between Colbert and his audience, which contrasts with Lilly’s style of looking directly at the camera or teleprompter. However, Colbert frequently reuses the same jokes over and over again. In particular, jokes about President Trump’s voice, Trump eating cheeseburgers, or Trump’s use of ellipses in tweets seem overused and often make it seem as if the show relies too much on insulting the president to interest audiences.
The Late Late Show with James Corden:
Something that I particularly admire about Corden is that his content shows his wide creative range. From Carpool Karaokes to bits where he sings, dances, or acts in them himself, the variety of content that the show provides makes it entertaining for nearly everybody watching. However, Corden seems to rely more on slapstick humor in segments like Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts. Furthermore, some of the bits don’t seem to make much sense, but this seems to be inevitable due to the wide range of content that he makes compared to other late-night hosts.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!:
Jimmy Kimmel is well known for his wide range of guests on his show, including athletes, government officials, and everyday people. Kimmel’s interactions with celebrity guests are particularly engaging because he allows celebrities to have their own comedic segment, which often results in some of the funniest content that the show has produced. His monologues, particularly about political topics, are engaging and his questions during celebrity interviews tend to highlight important aspects of the projects that the celebrity is currently working on and promoting. The only criticism that I have for this show is that some of his segments are a bit controversial, such as his Halloween Candy segment where he showed videos of kids throwing tantrums after finding out that their parents ate their candy. This garnered lots of criticism from the internet due to the lack of consent from the children to have their faces shown on television and questions raised as to what the comedic value was of seeing children cry.
While there are many other late-night hosts that we could tediously investigate such as Conan O’Brien or Trevor Noah, reviewing the ones that are found on the most popular television channels provides us with sufficient insight into the effort that these hosts put into their shows. Every host seems to have their own unique way of addressing their audience, creating their content, and having conversations with their guests; each show’s unique format allows audiences to pick and choose a show that is to their taste and provides a diverse range of content that has become a staple in American households.
Article by Vismaya Mohindra of Richard Montgomery High School
Graphic by Angelina Guhl of Richard Montgomery High School