(upbeat music) - Does anyone actually
watch late night TV anymore? I mean, of course we catch
late night clips online. Occasionally you'll see a
monologue from Jimmy Kimmel or "A Closer Look with Seth Myers" or a TikTok from Jimmy Fallon. But do most people turn on the TV, change the channel to network television, sit down and watch a late night episode from beginning to end? The answer, of course,
for most people is no. Ratings for every single late night show over the last decade have
pretty much been tanking. Back in 2019, I made a video called "Late
Night TV Needs to Change", and it seemed to resonate with
people because audiences felt that the format was getting stale. Then during the quarantine in 2020, the shows were forced to
rapidly change their format when they had to make
their shows from home. - Hello and welcome to "A Late Show". I'm your host Stephen Colbert. It's my birthday in quarantine. Woo, isn't that nice? - And then unfortunately, I was made to look like
an idiot when Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton saved late night TV by pushing a Bored Ape
NFT on "The Tonight Show". - This is your?
- That's mine. - This is your ape. We're debuting it. - Yeah, it's really cool. The hat, the shades. (audience applauding) - Now what, how did you pick? 'Cause you can pick your ape. - Yes. I was going through a lot
of them and I was like, I want something that
kind of reminds me of me. But this one, it does. And then I made another piece by hand. It took me six months, and it's a collage of all of my memories. - But years later, it feels like late night
is in a very weird place. I feel like we're in late night limbo, and it feels like something
that was once an institution in American entertainment is now just a side thing that happens on the internet. So first I wanna start with the
current state of late night, and there's no better
person to start that with than America's favorite late night host. - Now, I'm sure that lots
of people are wondering how I ended up here in this seat, and I include myself in that too. - [Eddy] There's a lot of things
to say about James Corden, but regardless of your
opinion of him as a person, he's actually a very good example
of where the current state of late night is. And that's because in April of 2022, Corden announced that he
would be ending his show the day his current contract was over. - Is I've decided to
sign for one more year on the show and that this'll be, this'll be my last year
hosting "The Late Late Show". (audience groaning) Don't you dare. (audience laughing) - That day is April 27th, 2023. So officially, "The Late Late Show with
James Corden" is over. (audience applauding) Hey, wait, wait. Some people liked the show, I'm sure. Okay. Now, if this were even 10 years ago, it would be a shock to
many that a host in such a sought after slot on network TV was ending his show so early. There would be constant discussion
on why Corden was leaving so soon and what comedian was
being scouted to replace him and get a shot at their
own late night show. But when James announced
that he was ending his run, the audience reaction was basically, yeah. Yeah, no, that sounds about right. This is partially because
James Corden made himself extremely disliked in the public eye, which, don't worry, I
will get to in a minute. But as someone in the US,
I had never heard of James until he was announced to take over "The Late Late Show" from Craig Ferguson. - When do you take over this show, James? - We will start on March 23rd. Yes. - Oh, unlucky 23rd of March. (audience laughing) - Yeah, yeah. - I just want to say, James,
I'm delighted it's you. I'm delighted you're taking over, and I'm very, very sorry
for what's about to happen. (audience laughing) - [Eddy] Craig had gathered
somewhat of a cult following and had a very passionate
fan base that loved his show. And Corden wasn't alone in
replacing a beloved host. James was part of a new
generation of late night hosts because from 2014 to 2015, there was a major shakeup
in the late night lineup. Jay Leno was retiring for the second time, passing "The Tonight Show"
over to Jimmy Fallon. Then you might ask yourself,
how do you retire twice? And it's a really simple procedure. First, you leave your job
after decades of having it, you gracefully hand the
position over to Conan O'Brien, and then you decide that
you miss the attention. So you come back, destroy
Conan's career for a year or two, and then you decide you're
tired and you retire once again. - Has Jay reached out to you? - No. - No calls? - No, I do not think
I'll be hearing from him. - As Jimmy moved from "Late
Night with Jimmy Fallon" up to "The Tonight Show", Seth Meyers moved to the late night slot from his head writing position at "SNL". David Letterman was also retiring, handing his show over to Stephen Colbert. So as all of the older
white dudes were retiring, a new fresh group of
hosts were taking over. And this group was much
more diverse because yes, they were all white, and
yes, they were all dudes, but one was British. Now, James Corden is one
of the most interesting TV hosts of all time because
it feels like he's been on a multi-year campaign
to make himself unlikeable. I'm sure you're already aware
of his controversy in 2022, but if you're not, James was banned from a
top restaurant in New York called Balthazar for being
abusive to the staff. The owner of Balthazar said, James Corden is a hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man
and the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers
since the restaurant opened 25 years ago. Now, James argued, I believe
that his wife had an allergy and he was just sticking up for her. But people who are servers in restaurants are always accommodating for allergies, and they're not always banning people and making a public statement about it. So I tend to lean toward the people who banned him rather than his defense. I don't bring this up though to paint James Corden as a monster. I just want to say that when
you are a late night host and you're on people's television screens every single night, likability
is really important. And part of that
likability, for me at least, is how you treat your crew. And back in 2016, James was
playing a game on his show called Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts. - [Announcer] Spill your
guts or fill your guts. - [Eddy] Now, personally, I think this game is wildly
entertaining for television. The basic premise is that James, writers, and staff draft
questions for him and his guests that are too juicy for
them to answer on TV, and they're usually very
personal to the guest and James. After being asked the question,
they have to make a choice. Do they want to answer this
difficult question on TV for everyone to see or eat a gross food? And during this shooting of
the game with Jimmy Kimmel, he was asked this. - Name two of the cameramen in this room. (audience groaning) - That is a great question. (audience applauding) It's a different crew tonight, actually. (audience laughing) (audience cheering) - [Eddy] At this point, Corden's Show had been
running for over two years. As the host of a show, to not even know the names of your crew may have been played off
as a joke in the moment, but is wildly unacceptable behavior. I know people have differing
opinions on Jimmy Kimmel, but I'm actually glad this
happened in front of him because as a seasoned late night host, Jimmy is pretty famous
for the family culture around his crew. I mean, some of his crew are
quite literally his family, but I would bet that Jimmy would easily know his cameramen's names. And the same goes for
Colbert, Conan, Myers, Trevor Noah, and Fallon. It's even more telling that his own staff are the ones who asked this question. Is this a bigger deal than being abusive to restaurant staff? No. But when you're watching
a show constantly, you pick up on these little moments and they might make you not wanna watch. Stuff like James finding out that Alice Cooper has a phobia of
balloons being rubbed together because he hates the sound. And then James does this. - It's the sound of it. - I dunno if people know
what you're talking about. - Don't, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. - No, I'm saying, no, I'm saying. No, I'm not making fun, I'm
saying is it that sort of noise? - It's that type of noise. - It's that type of thing. - It's that noise?
- Yes. - So if someone says, oh,
it's that, that's the one. - [Eddy] And this last one
is a super specific nitpick, that is not a real problem. But as someone who lives in
LA, I have to talk about. Corden's Crosswalk Musicals
are a really funny idea and usually start with a funny sketch where James is parodying people who are too much in the theater industry. But every time he does one of these, I just think about the fact that this is a very busy
street in Los Angeles. How do I know? Because I walked there to show you. The premise of the sketch is very funny. They perform a musical number, but the second the crosswalk goes red, they have to scream and run
off to allow traffic to start. But every time they do one of these, we see clips of unhappy drivers who don't give a shit about James Cordon and just want to go home. ♪ Let's get loud ♪ - [Driver] Wow. ♪ Ain't nobody gonna tell
ya what you gotta do ♪ - [Voiceover] They programmed
this light to last longer and clog traffic just
so James can do a bit. - [Driver] Get off the car, dude. (upbeat music) What are you doing? (crowd shouting) He probably broke that car. - But as I stood there trying
to get footage to show you how busy the crosswalk can get,
even in the early afternoon, I started to become overwhelmed by the sheer star power of it all. The crosswalk was
labeled Corden Crosswalk, and I could see his face
plastered on the CBS building. International superstars
had stood right here, people like Harry
Styles, BTS, or Josh Gad. And that's when it hit me, I
could cross the walk myself. This was it. This was my moment. So I clicked the crosswalk button, waited for the countdown, and finally. (uplifting music) It was exhilarating. Okay, so I just crossed
the Corden Crosswalk and I feel great. I found myself crossing again and again. Number three was good,
but how about number four? I just couldn't get enough. All right, that is seven times across the Corden Crosswalk,
and I can't get enough. I could feel the energy of
fame coursing through my veins. If you're famous, who cares if you stop traffic for people going home from work? Who cares if you're abusive
to restaurant staff? Smells like James. Some people know your name and face, and that makes you better. - Welcome, welcome, welcome
to "The Tonight Show". You are here. (audience cheering) Thank you for watching. - [Eddy] The reason I
want to talk about Fallon after James Cordon is because to me, even though Cordon follows Colbert on CBS, he's always kind of seemed
like diet Jimmy Fallon. In 2014 when Jimmy took over, he exploded "The Tonight Show's" ratings and pretty instantly became
the king of late night. This was mainly due to "The
Tonight Show's" ability to showcase Jimmy's friendly personality as he played games and did
stunts with celebrities. - And right now, we're
gonna try a new game, it's called Faceketball. - At this time, whether
you like him or not, Jimmy made "The Tonight Show" the late Night Show to
watch on TV and on YouTube. But I think long term, this has ended up hurting
Jimmy more than it helped. But before we keep going, a
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biggest sale they've ever done. I think the hat is too big. I think I need to return it. People expect a lot
from a late night host. They have to be friendly, yes, but they also have to be quick, great at standup every single night, one of the best
interviewers on TV and more. And aside from the host,
for a very long time, the big draw to late night was its access to celebrity culture. Before the internet, if there
was a celebrity you liked that you wanted to see interviewed, you could tune into "The Tonight Show" to see what they were like. Nowadays, you have near unlimited access to content of people
that you want to follow. You can see daily social
media posts from celebrities, a million press junkets when they promote their movies or TV shows. There are podcast appearances,
YouTube interviews, live streams, and more. I honestly think a change in
that culture is also a huge reason people don't tune
in live to these shows. And during the 2016 election, a lot of audiences started
to want to see their host increase the amount that they
lampooned the day's news. So when "The Tonight
Show" put all their eggs into the fun celebrity show
with Jimmy Fallon basket, it didn't transition well to
this new era of late night. With Jimmy actively avoiding politics and admitting later that he regretted it. I also think other than the 2016 election, there was a measurable
shift in the public's desire for celebrity content. One moment on a specific day
that caused most people to lose interest in idolizing celebrities and finally view them as regular people. Imagine all the people that
were put off by one video. ♪ Imagine there's no heaven ♪ - [Eddy] I like to pretend that
Pedro wasn't in that video. He was shooting "Wonder Woman". He did it for his costar. He was trying to be nice. We forgive you, Pedro. I will say though, that in the past, I think we were all a little
too hard on Jimmy Fallon. When someone takes the seat
on such a prestigious throne, we expect absolute perfection from them. And I think filling the
shoes of Johnny Carson or being better than Conan O'Brien is way too much to ask from the guy. And it's not like "The
Tonight Show" is unwatchable. A lot of people really
love him and the show. I will also always praise Jimmy for choosing The Roots as his band. - [Announcer] And now Jimmy Kimmel. - [Eddy] I feel so unbelievably
neutral on Jimmy Kimmel. Maybe once or twice a year
I'll catch a monologue he did or a viral segment from his show. But I've never really
felt strongly about him. I will say I think he and Corden had the most boring quarantine shows. "Jimmy Kim Live" is probably
the most cookie cutter classic late night show
format of all of them. One thing I did notice, though, is that Kimmel seems to
interlace a lot of his monologue with viral video clips
and clips from the news before he makes jokes about them. It feels a bit more like a
modern take on a monologue because he's reacting to
them a little bit more and they do really well on
YouTube for that reason, I think. But yeah, I don't know. I don't really feel
strongly about Jimmy Kimmel. - Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Welcome in here out there
all around the world to "The Late Show". I am. I am your host, Stephen Colbert. - [Eddy] So when we're
looking at the current state of late night and how the
format works after quarantine, a lot of hosts have not changed
much since they came back, especially the big three,
Fallon, Colbert, and Kimmel. Fallon of course, wasn't
equipped for the political change in late night, but if
anyone on the planet was, it was Stephen Colbert fresh
off "The Colbert Report". In my older videos, I've expressed that when I was a teenager, "The Colbert Report" was one
of the best pieces of satire and performance art that I
had ever seen in my life. I and many others were slightly
disappointed to see that once "The Late Show" had premiered
and run for about a year, the show just wasn't quite as funny or as smart as "The Colbert Report". But honestly, years later, I'm not sure if that would've even been possible for him at all. Stephen was doing a satirical character after nearly a decade of playing him. He was then hired to be himself
and replace David Letterman in the late night format. And I think Stephen's comedy,
when it's not character based, is just really not for
me most of the time. I think I speak for most young
late night viewers when I say that I actually really
like Stephen Colbert, but I don't watch his show much anymore. I actually preferred seeing
even more of Stephen's personality when he was
unscripted with his wife Evie during quarantine. But since then, the show
has kind of gone back to exactly what it was
before COVID started. I do wanna retract something
though that I said in 2019 about Colbert being a
mediocre interviewer. While I do think that some
hosts like Myers or Conan are better at elevating
comedians in interviews and Colbert maybe isn't the best at it, I have seen some really honest
and compassionate moments from Stephen with his guests. - You yourself have suffered
great grief just recently with the loss of your mother, and I'm sorry for your family's loss. - Thank you. - And I'm wondering how
doing this show or any show, how art itself helps you deal with grief. - Yeah. - [Eddy] Colbert also added something to their YouTube lineup
where he takes questions from the audience in between tapings, which is something originally that Trevor Noah started
at "The Daily Show". But I love these segments. I think what's really
special about Stephen Colbert is he seems like an extremely intelligent and compassionate person. - You went on to say, what
punishments of God are not gifts? Do you really believe that? - Yes. So what do you get from loss? You get awareness of other people's loss. - Well, that's true, empathy. - Which allows you to connect
with that other person. - Right. - Which allows you to love more deeply and to understand what it's
like to be a human being. - Good evening everybody, I'm Seth Myers. This is "Late Night". We hope you're doing well. And now, if you don't mind,
we're gonna get to the news. - [Eddy] I've mentioned in
the past that as the network, late night shows have progressed, and especially since
Conan is off the air now, "Late Night with Seth Myers"
is easily my favorite. Seth is funny, he's
really good with guests, and seems to have a great relationship with his crew and writers. - Who ate my weed gummies? Wally? Tom? There were a lot of gummies in this jar. Who ate them? Bianca? Sarah? Brian? - During quarantine, I
praised Seth for being the first to quickly adapt his
show to shooting from home. His A Closer Look segments were the only regular late night that I could watch, other than the occasional
Trevor Noah segment from "The Daily Show". As a fan of late night though, because their shows
were made in their home and felt like YouTube videos, I started exclusively watching late night on YouTube and abandoned watching
it on TV altogether. This is where, in my opinion, we started to see the beginning
of the end for late night as an institution in American culture. Because from 2014 to 2020, late night was forced to
rapidly change with the times as video on the internet
became the primary source for entertainment. Every show started introducing
segments that were meant to go viral on YouTube. And for a time, that was a
great way to entice young people to get off YouTube and
tune into the show on TV. But ever since quarantine, I've stopped watching live TV altogether. As a 26 year old, I just don't catch cable
or network TV live, and I barely watch cable or network TV unless it's on streaming the next day. With the one exception
of watching "SNL" live, which I've been doing less and less lately just because it's not
normal for me to watch TV as a young person. I don't have a cable package, and you cannot force me
to get a cable package. I will never do it, Comcast,
you'll never get me again. Real quick, I totally
forgot to mention this while I was making the entire video. The Yikes clothing that I'm
wearing throughout the whole thing is new merch, and I
didn't think to mention it once. It's at yikesshop.com or the link is in the
description to click. I'm so sorry I didn't mention it before. Back to the video. And this is where I think
I disagree with the energy of my video in 2019 the most. Because at the end of the day, no matter who changed
the format in what way, or who hosted what show, late night is past its prime simply because times have changed. I mentioned access to celebrity culture not being a draw to late night anymore, but almost every feature of
late night TV has thousands of alternatives online
or in streaming services. Do you wanna watch some
celebrity interviews? You could watch "Hot Ones"
or a podcast they were on, or magazine interviews like
GQ or Wired on YouTube. Do you wanna see topical
comedy on today's news? Everyone on Twitter has already
beaten every joke to death on the topic before the
day's late night episode even begins taping. Late night Audiences have
watched some hosts change their format and continue to
keep up with them on YouTube, but there is simply too
much good content out there in the world to expect most
people to shut it all off and tune into an hour
of network television. Conan had completely shifted
his show around until finally settling on the fact that late night was no longer a good format for him. He now has an extremely
successful podcast where he does much more personal and in-depth interviews he couldn't do in the old format. He also has been developing
what seems to be a full show for his remotes and travel remotes, which was a wildly successful
new format to his show that showcased his talents much better than being forced to do a monologue in a suit in front of a live audience. It's why I don't blame Trevor Noah for leaving "The Daily Show". He's young, very intelligent,
and full of potential. Why waste it on a cable
show on Comedy Central that people are almost
exclusively watching on YouTube? Especially when every other
late night show has become a form of "The Daily
Show" for the most part. And other comedians like John Oliver, Hasan Minhaj, and Ziwe have all tried to radically change the format. And as a viewer, all three of these shows
totally work for me. But "Hasan's Patriot Act"
and "Ziwe" both got canceled. I think that's probably
why we saw Trevor Noah leave without passing
the show to a successor, leaving "The Daily Show"
to just cycle through guest hosts for now. And CBS ending "The Late Late Show" along with Cordon ending his run. They're actually
replacing it with a reboot of "At Midnight" from Comedy Central. I just never thought I
would see "At Midnight" return ever again. So can shows like "Late Night" work? Yes, of course, but I don't think we'll
ever see "Late Night" as an institution again, because at the time it was one
of like three things on TV. Year by year, the late night business makes less money and ratings go down, and I think that has more
to do with atmosphere than the hosts themselves. When I was 13, my parents
got a cable package that required two extra cable boxes to be installed in our house. That meant that for the first time, my brother Tony and I had access to watch what we wanted later at night. Now, this coincidentally
was right around the time that Conan O'Brien agreed to
start his show again on TBS. At the time, this was a huge deal running off "The Tonight Show" drama. So we tuned in to watch
his premiere episode, and I cannot stress how instantly hooked we were on his show. For years, I was glued to the
TV almost every single night to watch him. I love how silly he allowed himself to be, how frequently he made
himself the butt of a joke to elevate his guests. Andy was always quick and hilarious. And anytime Conan did a
remote, I was beyond excited. And for most of my teenage years, I had two dreams in my life. One is that I wanted to make movies or be involved in making movies. And the other was to one
day become a comedian with my own late night show. And that's what made the
2014 to 2015 transition so exciting for me. It was really cool seeing
the differences in what every show's crew, writers, and hosts
had to offer to the format. But much like the format, that dream has slowly faded over time. And that's okay. Times change, the world changes, and people's interests change. So who knows what the future
of late night will be? Maybe it'll fizzle out and die, or maybe it'll just drop
in ratings and never be as influential as it once was. But there is something
that I do know for sure, and that's the fact that if
you have any positive memory laughing at a late night
show with yourself or friends or family, it would be 100% impossible without the talented writers
on staff at these shows. Now, I'm sure you've heard
about this, but if you haven't, currently the Writer's Guild
of America is on strike negotiating with major studios. - Then we begin with the WGA strike. Writers say they are fighting
to make screenwriting a sustainable career once again. - [Reporter] Writers on average
now getting paid 23% less than 15 years ago when
adjusted for inflation. - Times are changing
fast in entertainment, which is why I was overjoyed to see all of the hosts and late night shows pause their production
to support the writers in this situation. - These are our writers, and I'll stick myself in
there 'cause I'm WGA too, and they're so important to our show. - I need my writers. I need them real bad. - [Interviewer] You need
your writers so bad. - Yeah, I got no show without my writers. - No one, look, no one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who
have a job in show business, they are entitled to fair compensation. They're entitled to make a living. - Because while some people
who are critical of the strike online think that the
Hollywood elite are striking for more money, it's not the case at all. The Hollywood elite you're
thinking of are studio execs that get super, super rich off
of the work of the writers. So if you are against the Hollywood elite and pro the little guy, then you should be pro this
union and pro the strike. And with that being said, I have one more very
important thing to do. ♪ Been walking round in circles ♪ - This will be my last year hosting "The Late Late Show". Don't you dare. ♪ This long overdue conversation ♪ ♪ Why we're falling apart ♪ ♪ The wave tossing and turning ♪ ♪ One more endless night ♪ - [James] Blimey Ari,
me eggs are overcooked. Let's make the waiter cry. ♪ Since I heard you were talking ♪ ♪ To someone else last night ♪ ♪ So now I thank you for
making it easy to leave ♪ (gentle guitar music) ♪ Thank you for making it easy to leave ♪
