For decades late night talk shows have been pillar of American television. The emergence of The Tonight Show and with Johnny Carson’s stewardship, the show became a favorite for families to watch their favorite stars and actors. Giving birth to numerous comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen Degeneres, late night became the foundation of modern show business. 

     Yet, with the emergence of social media, a new reckoning in political commentary, and even the Covid-19 pandemic, the appetite for late night television has dwindled 

      In 2014 Saturday Night Live alumni Jimmy Fallon became the host of The Tonight Show. In the short duration of his hosting Fallon has received mixed reviews. The early years of his residency as the host were met with high viewer counts and good reviews across the board. 

      Earning three Emmy nominations during the first three years of the show, Jimmy Fallon was one of the most watched hosts on television. Over 1,400 shows later, however, the show is not doing as well. Fallin has recently been criticized for lackluster performance, leading to a serious reorganization of the writing staff with multiple head-writers coming and going. 

       Unfortunately for The Tonight Show, this has not cured their ratings problem. Notably, on January 11, 2021 his show received only 947,000 viewers according to the Nielsen ratings. This is the lowest recorded viewership of the show to date. 

      The same report showed Stephen Colbert’s Late Show massing 2.03 million viewers on January 11, over double Fallon’s audience. Colbert has been battling Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon for the sparse late night viewers since his first show in 2015. Recently Colbert has been coming in ahead of the two.

     Many point out Colbert’s political background, commentary and focus for the show’s success. Similar descriptions have been made for Late Night With Seth Meyers and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (all shows with healthy viewership). 

     In a recent poll conducted among North Harford Students, 83% reported not watching late night television. For the 17% of those that do, 55 percent of them prefer Fallon. While among those viewers only 7 percent of them choose Colbert as their favorite host. 

     The ratings and viewership plummet has also spread to daytime television too. The once deemed “Queen of daytime” Ellen Degeneres has seen her viewership dip from previous seasons. In October of last year rating for The Ellen Degeneres Show dropped 30% from the previous season according to the Nielsen TV ratings.

     With lower amounts of people tuning in each day to watch the television programs, many have turned to social media and YouTube, to reach audiences. As of February 4 Fallon’s youtube channel had 27.1 million subscribers. The subscriber count jumped significantly during his “Tonight Show at Home Edition” episodes that aired solely on the site last spring. 

     Television fans will have to wait to see if there will be any changes to the late night and talk show roster. Fallon’s current contract with NBC is due to end at the end of the year. 

      Many insiders have speculated that the new era of politics will lower the appetite for political commentary, leading pop culture heavy shows like The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Late Show with James Corden to return as the premier late night talk shows.