Recently, two late night talk shows on over the air network television were effectively cancelled. On July 18th, 2025, CBS announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end in May of 2026…..thus retiring the ‘The Late Show’ franchise” in May of 2026 and ending years of original late-night programming at CBS that started when the network lured David Letterman from NBC in 1993.
On September 18th, 2025, it was announced by ABC that Jimmy Kimmel Live was being suspended indefinitely after host Jimmy Kimmel suggested on September 16th that the suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, was aligned with President Donald Trump (which local and federal officials ALL said wasn’t true) regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk the week prior. This is what Jimmy Kimmel said on his show on September 16th…….
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them — and doing everything they can to score political points from it….”
- ABC Cancels Jimmy Kimmel’s Show Indefinitely After Kimmel Lied About Charlie Kirk’s Assassin Being a MAGA Conservative – Trump Gloats!
- By Cristina Laila, The Gateway Pundit | Published September 17, 2025, at 6:00 pm
The Video of the Monolog can be viewed by clicking here. This followed statements made by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group saying that all the ABC affiliates owned by both companies would be pre-empting Jimmy Kimmel Live indefinitely. ABC and parent company Disney announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live will be returning to the air as of Tuesday, September 22nd. More on that in a moment…...
The reaction to these developments depends on which side of the political spectrum you are on. Many on the left were already likening the development to a fascist takeover of America and claiming it was a First Amendment violation while many on the right were cheering the cancellations, saying that these hosts were getting a taste of what the left and their pals in big tech (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) did to conservatives and others during the COVID era and the “Cancel Culture” that followed.
I mentioned a moment ago that Disney announced that they would allow Jimmy Kimmel Live to return to ABC saying that, “…..We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.” However, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group announced that all the ABC affiliates owned by both companies would continue pre-empting Jimmy Kimmel Live indefinitely. Sinclair said that they were, “…...replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.” while Nexstar said that “they stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.”
The two recent developments regarding late night talk shows on broadcast television are just an illustration of why the whole white knight so genre is going away from broadcast television. Indicative of what has been a larger trend going back at least the past two decades if not longer.
Why could this be the end of the Late-Night Shows on Broadcast Television as the title of this Big B File suggests? The reason for is this…the American people of both ideologies… Liberal and conservative… Have turned away from the late-night shows because Americans are sick and tired of being lectured when all we want is to just be entertained. It does not matter whatsoever whether we are conservative or Liberal or something in between, we tuned into the late night shows with hosts like Johnny Carson and Jay Leno to be simply entertained, have a collective laugh, and get away from the rough and tumble of the day-to-day where we had to hear politicians and the Ancient Media lecture us on politics etcetera. In other words, the late-night shows were like an “escape valve” or a “pressure release” from the daily grind right before we said good night and went to bed.
Mr. Johnny Carson, who is the undisputed "King of Late Night," television and hosted The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992, was asked in an interview with CBS 60 minutes’ Mike Wallace why he kept politics out of the shows he hosted or (as Mike Wallace put it) "never take a serious controversy":
"Now, tell me the last time that Jack Benny, Red Skelton, any comedian, used his show to do serious issues. That's not what I'm there for. Can't they see that?" Carson replied. "Why do they think that just because you have a ‘Tonight Show,’ that you must deal in serious issues?
"That's a danger. It's a real danger. Once you start that, you start to get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import(ance). And you know, strangely enough, you could use that show as a forum. You could sway people. And I don't think you should as an entertainer."
- Flashback: Johnny Carson warned against danger of late-night shows preaching on 'serious issues'
- 'King of Late Night' warned on '60 Minutes' in 1979 against self-importance.
- By Alexander Hall Fox News | Published September 19, 2025, 5:22pm EDT
His successor at the Tonight Show, Mr. Jay Leno, said essentially the same thing in an interview with Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation CEO David Trulio in July of 2025. Leno even gave an example of why the approach he and Carson took while each hosted The Tonight Show worked so well all those years……
“I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular group, you know, or just don’t do it at all,” the former “Tonight Show” host said. “I’m not saying you have to throw your support or whatever, but just do what’s funny……
…...It was fun to me when I got hate letters, ‘Dear Mr. Leno, you and your Republican friends’ and, ‘Well, Mr. Leno, I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy’ — over the same joke.”
- Jay Leno slams late-night hosts for alienating half of viewers by targeting just Trump
- By Alex Oliveir The New York Post | Published July 27, 2025, 6:52 a.m. ET
You can watch the entire Jay Leno interview with Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation CEO David Trulio (courtesy of Fox News) by clicking here. If the late-night talk show hosts dropped the Political preaching, just stick to humor and taken the approach of Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, we wouldn’t be looking at what is the likely demise of the Late-Night Shows on Broadcast Television like The Tonight Show, The Late Show, and others.
However, if they do take the great advice of the highly successful hosts of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson and Jay Leno (hosting for a combined 52 years), then the Late-Night Shows on Broadcast Television have a chance to survive. Otherwise, you might as well start writing the obituary for not just Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Cobert’s shows…but for the entire of the Late-Night Show genre as well!
……And that is the Big B Files. Click on the comments link below and tell me what you think……I’m Bryan V. Hewing.
