About a month ago, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was cancelled after the Trump administration, namely Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, applied political pressure on Disney for comments Kimmel made on Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Earlier in July, the administration also pressured ABC into cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Disney, with mounting public outcry to the left and Republican criticism of Carr to the right, was stuck in the middle and has since brought Kimmel back on the air. Colbert hasn’t had the same luck.
I admit that when I first saw the news break of Colbert and Kimmel’s cancellations, my first thought was to lament for how Donald Trump and Brendan Carr have killed it and are stifling freedom of speech. It was only as an afterthought that I considered the decline of late night over decades and the fact that I had not seen a full episode of any late-night show in weeks, if not months.
Now, only a quarter of Americans say they watch late night, with more saying they’ll watch the clips. Every generation adopts its own medium of communication and media. For boomers, it’s the newspaper and the radio. For millennials, it was cable television. For us Gen Zers, it’s social media. Just as newspapers have gone the way of the courier, soon television will go the way of newspapers. Podcasts, streaming, talk shows and shorter videos and clips have come to occupy the space in front of people’s eyes that late night television once did. In many ways they are better than late night television: they are less regulated, more responsive to viewers and more democratic in that they represent a broader plethora of views in a format more in tune with the times. Trump and Carr are the straw that broke the camel’s back, but Gen Z has been killing late night for years.
We should all not be so shocked that the shows we have been neglecting for years go the way of the dodo. The last night of late night will come subtly and quietly and it will happen at a different time for everyone. It will creep up on us just like the last night of bedtime stories or PBS Kids has already. We may not even notice it or remember the precise day, but soon, we will all watch our last episode or clip of late-night TV. In the end, our Instagram and YouTube algorithms will stop recommending us the 30-second highlights. That will be the last night of late night.
The pervasiveness of social media seems to, for now, be an unstoppable force whereas late night television is no immovable object. For the vast majority, the decision to choose social media over late night is a foregone conclusion. This idea may seem quite somber. I still remember some funny Colbert skits and might even miss Last Week Tonight occasionally appearing on my For You Page or YouTube Shorts.
Trump’s shuttering of late-night shows is a bad omen and may be a First Amendment violation. It is reprehensible that the government even involves itself in such matters of private corporate fiscal governance. However, we must not pretend that late night was a thriving industry before the intervention, or that it is the only — or even the best way — to get our fix of satirical political commentary. It simply isn’t.
So, I say let late night die. The last night of late night will not be the death of freedom of expression or quality political commentary. On the contrary, it’ll give way to new forms of political communication that better resonate with more people. The decline of late night as a cultural institution may seem like a net loss, but it only gives way to new forms of media and new institutions more relevant to the new base of consumers.
More importantly, it also reminds us not to forget our own voices. The ease with which these establishment figures were silenced should serve as a reminder to each of us how important our own voices and critical thought are. The government never has business telling us how we can talk about politics or what we can say. It is unfortunate that we must be so starkly reminded of that fact, but it must be one that we never forget. The specter of government censorship has never loomed so large since the infamous McCarthy era of inquisitional hearings and widespread fear of dissent. What’s more, we must now contend with an ever-abstruse regulatory state that wields its regulatory machinations against the public. We must not let such threats dominate our discourse or our lives. b
Here at Cornell, we have one of the most politically active campuses. Rarely does a week go by without at least one protest on my walk from Okenshields to Ives Hall. If Trump’s actions anger you, don’t protest to bring back the man employed by a mass media machine so that he can speak for you. Instead, engage in the uncomfortable conversations the administration seeks to stifle. Show respect and some good faith to those you disagree with. Take the flier from the megaphone-wielding protester on Ho Plaza. Listen, think and if you still disagree, understand why. In a world of TV hosts, pundits and talking heads it is absolutely important we never forget the power that we have to listen, understand and persuade.
Rayen Zhou ’29 is an Opinion Columnist and a student in the School of Industrial & Labor Relations. His fortnightly column Rhyme or Reason seeks to provide an eclectic view on politics and campus life informed by history, philosophy, culture and a healthy dose of inquisitive skepticism. He can be reached at rzhou@cornellsun.com.
