As the Strikes Continue, Late Night Is a Fright

Consider late night What was once a vital daypart filled with some of the most entertaining programs on television has in recent months become a graveyard of talk show reruns Collectively The Late Show with Stephen Colbert The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Late Night with Seth Meyers Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Daily Show made for dynamic habitual viewing But I39m pretty sure the habitual part is over If it isn39t it will be and soonThe only reliable nighttime entertainment talk shows right now are Bravo39s sporadically scheduled Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen which years ago began life at 11 pm ET but was moved into primetime and Fox News39 Gutfeld a huge success in late night that was recently relocated to primetime as well Come 11 pm even the news networks are running repeats of news programs Fox is the sole exception with its Fox News Night but at the stroke of midnight it goes into rerun mode too The only fresh programming at that hour comes courtesy of the live home shopping channels I wonder if their ratings and sales are currently on the riseWhere does all this leave late night Not in a good place that39s for sure Think about daytime television What had once been an exciting daypart filled with addictive daily dramas and terrific talk shows toplined by such giant personalities as Oprah Winfrey Barbara Walters Regis Philbin and Rosie O39Donnell is now a shadow of its former self Network executives for years blamed the prolonged preemptions brought on by coverage in the mid3990s of the OJ Simpson doublemurder trial for the widespread damage from which the daypart never recovered No matter what came along much of the audience fell out of whatever habits it was in There are a few bright lights today but overall daytime remains dimmedCertainly there are more immediate and important issues having to do with the collateral damage the strikes are bringing about We know that a majority of quotworkingquot writers and actors live paycheck to paycheck or gig to gig and that their money is running out Some are already talking about selling their homes I39m sympathetic to their circumstances and their overall plight who doesn39t want the little guys to win when going up against ruthless corporate overlords But what about the workers in other professions that are so thoroughly dependent on movie and television production not only in Los Angeles but in New York City Atlanta and elsewhere As I write this at home in Connecticut I39m watching a report on a local news program about the millions being lost right here in my home stateI39m not just talking about the service industry Journalists and others who keep infotainment programs web sites magazines and newspapers alive are beginning to suffer too Coming on the heels of the COVID pandemic with its wideranging damage this is becoming an overwhelming mess And as always only the folks at the top are moving through it relatively unscathed amp8230 though I doubt they all see it that wayMy concerns about impending economic doom are not unrelated to my concerns about the future of television Historically the industry has always bounced back from strikes by writers and actors What39s different this time is that even as programming dries up or is replaced by largely unremarkable unscripted andor imported fare audiences have options Beyond social media and contentrich streamers we have in recent years become a nation of news junkies often choosing Fox News MSNBC CNN or NewsNation at night rather than CBS NBC ABC or Fox For some YouTube is all they need That is especially true of young peopleA neighbor of mine stopped me yesterday to ask about the strikes and to tell me that she has become so used to watching quotoldquot movies and television series that she has come to prefer them as they make her feel good and don39t stress her out the way more modern fare often does She intends to stick with her newfound pleasuresWill primetime suffer the same fearsome fate as daytime and quite possibly late night Obviously the strikes aren39t the only factors threatening to undermine the business of television as we know it But they are certainly contributing to its current and future challenges and the end result may be less work for everyonePosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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As the Strikes Continue, Late Night Is a Fright

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Ed Martin

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As the Strikes Continue, Late Night Is a Fright

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