The Evolution of Political Moments on Network Late Night: From Cautious Big-Tent Entertainment to Biting Narrowcast Infotainment

Late night talk shows have been an integral part of U.S. television since the 1950s, and the genre continues to thrive today in an ever changing media landscape. In my dissertation, I argue that the contemporary programs of Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! make up a category of late night talk shows that I term as satirical network late night. From a visual standpoint, these programs look almost identical to past programs like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson or the Late Show with David Letterman with their sets, house bands, monologues, sketches, desk pieces, and guest appearances. However, these satirical network late night programs produce political content that differs vastly from their predecessors. I assert that these programs are steeped in brazen partisanship, amplify the news media, and function as a sensationalized form of infotainment. This is not the big-tent and “least objectionable programming” offered on past network programs like Carson’s Tonight Show. Additionally, this is not what was offered on cable parody news programs such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that presented a veiled partisanship, served as a watchdog over the media and political spheres, and lambasted the entertainment-laden modes of modern news reporting and punditry. In less than a decade, satirical network late night has disrupted genre conventions that existed on network television for over sixty years. This research breaks down what makes these new satirical network late night programs’ political content distinct and helps to decipher why these changes took place in mid-2010s.