The Late-Night Divide

When Daniel O’Brien, senior writer at “Last Week Tonight”, the weekly show hosted by John Oliver and known for its biting political commentary, accepted his Emmy last Sunday, he half-jokingly expressed his gratitude for receiving a prize for his work on a late-night political satire series “while it’s still a type of show that is allowed to exist.” Just three days later, he couldn’t be so sure of that anymore after ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live” indefinitely for remarks made by Kimmel during Monday’s show.

Kimmel had accused the MAGA movement of trying to gain political points from the murder of Charlie Kirk and suggested that the alleged shooter Tyler Robinson was “one of them.” The comments immediately caused outrage from conservatives and even prompted a reaction from Brendan Carr, Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. In an interview on a podcast, Carr demanded consequences for Kimmel, suggesting that his agency might step otherwise. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Mr. Carr told podcast host Benny Johnson, a right-wing influencer. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead.”

Kimmel, like Colbert, is a vocal critic of President Trump and his administration, who in turn has never made a secret of his disdain for both. “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote in a social media post in reaction to Kimmel’s suspension. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,” he continued, referencing Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, two colleagues of Kimmel and Colbert.

As our chart, based on a recent YouGov/Yahoo poll, shows, there is a deep partisan divide in views of the current generation of late-night hosts. While figures like Colbert, Kimmel or Fallon are very popular among Democrats, the opposite is true for most Republicans. Jimmy Fallon, who is less politically outspoken than many of his colleagues, is perhaps the only exception with 20 percent of Republicans calling him one of their favorite late-night personalities. Meanwhile two thirds of Republican respondents said that none of the listed candidates was one of their favorites, which is not a surprise given that most of them are very critical of President Trump and his policies.