Late-night comedy is dead, but the ever-leftward shift of the hosts isn’t responsible for the gradual decline.
At least, that’s if you believe the lamentation of one writer from Vulture who predicted that “late night’s survival might hinge on kissing the rings of conservatives.”
Look:
‘The Tonight Show’s’ booking of popular Fox News host Greg Gutfeld foreshadows a future where late night’s survival might hinge on kissing the rings of conservatives. https://t.co/ewhYZDqgLD
— Vulture (@vulture) August 8, 2025
The article, “Jimmy Fallon Kisses the Conservative Ring,” breaks down the psychology of a late-night host inviting someone who isn’t reliably liberal, as if there’s something so bizarrely shocking about that. The writer points out that some are blaming the move on the cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” and Paramount’s merger with Skydance, while others claim that declining ratings and revenue played a significant part in bringing on Gutfeld.
“In either case, if the future of late-night television is in any way contingent on kissing the rings of conservatives, the world got a glimpse of what that might look like on August 7’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Greg Gutfeld, host of Fox News’s wildly popular late-night show Gutfeld!, was featured on the show as guest, yukking it up with Fallon like the pair were old pals,” the story reads.
“To some, Gutfeld! proves the theory that late-night TV would be more successful if it catered more to conservatives. The show, geared toward a MAGA audience, consistently outperforms all its competitors in linear ratings. Despite his success, Gutfeld’s appearance on The Tonight Show is the first time he’s been invited onto any of the big-network late-night shows since his own show debuted in 2021,” it continues. “It’s hard to view this booking as anything other than a ploy on the part of NBC to court his audience. The benefits, the network evidently calculated, outweigh any potential backlash stemming from Gutfeld’s history of controversial jokes and remarks. (Just last month, he made headlines by joking that conservatives should proudly reclaim the word ‘Nazi’ like Black people have reclaimed the N-word.) Gutfeld himself referred to the booking as a ‘risk.’”
But as the writer points out, this is not Fallon’s first slip-up with the leftist crowd.
“After Fallon’s now-infamous Tonight Show interview with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 election, many criticized him for humanizing Trump by asking him softball questions and tousling his hair,” he recalls.
X users didn’t hold back:
Do you hear yourself
— Jake Poinier (@DrFreelance) August 9, 2025
Or just treating them like normal people…
— Brad King (@BradKin74060452) August 8, 2025
How dare they allow someone of differing politics on air!!!! The nerve!!
— Eric (@EB21122) August 9, 2025
Wait a minute. The phrase du jour is “bend the knee.” Or has a new memo been released?
As for Gutfeld, what’s wrong with a talk show host booking popular guests regardless of politics? That’s how things used to be.
— Ethan Nobles
(@NoblesLawFirm) August 9, 2025
…survival might hinge on <<not intentionally pissing off half the country>>. There, fixed it for ya.
— PoliticsJunkie45013 (@poljunkie45013) August 9, 2025
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Sierra Marlee
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