As the November election approaches, late-night show hosts are increasing their political activism for President Biden, a move critics say is alienating viewers and ruining humor.
Fox Across America host Jimmy Failla joked, “One of the reasons late night ratings are down is because these people don’t understand the environment. They’re putting their energy behind a president who’s voting for ISIS.” Fox News Digital,
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel is the latest late-night host to lead a star-studded celebrity fundraiser for Biden’s 2024 campaign. George Clooney, Julia Roberts and former President Barack Obama appeared alongside Biden In the spectacular event on June 15th in Los Angeles Allegedly picked up Over $30 million.
The Hollywood fundraiser comes less than three months after CBS’s Stephen Colbert attended a gala event. record-setting fundraiser That raised $26 million for the Biden campaign.
Late-night hosts Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have turned their comedy into liberal activism for President Biden. (Getty/CBS/ABC screenshot)
Failla joked, “They shouldn’t be raising money for Biden’s campaign. They should be raising money for his diapers.”
These fundraising campaigns are prime examples of how late-night comedy has become “proudly partisan”, “more one-sided”, and “generally soft on Biden”. As stated in a recent Politico report,
On their late-night comedy shows, Kimmel, Colbert and NBC’s Seth Meyers continue to blur the line between comedy and activism.
After joking about Biden’s age this week, Meyers warned He asked his viewers not to compare the Democratic president to his GOP rival, former President Trump.
“Now a quick disclaimer for anyone who is offended by my Biden-is-old jokes,” Meyers said. “As we’ve made clear repeatedly on this show, there is no equivalency between a competent 81-year-old man who rarely shows signs of age and a deranged 77-year-old criminal who says dead people rigged the election and thinks electric boat batteries will cause shark attacks.”
A Politico column points out that late-night comedians rarely ask President Biden questions even though they’re “ripe” for the material. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Failla said that late-night shows are “failing” in the ratings because they’re only attracting viewers who agree with their biased views.
“When it comes to people like Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, the audience is never surprised when Donald Trump’s name comes up, and for that reason, it’s hard to take them seriously as comedians,” Failla said.
Failla said, “(Meyers) is not doing comedy. He’s giving a biased lecture, and when people applaud you it’s because they agree with you. It’s not because they find you funny.”
one discovery The conservative watchdog Media Research Center found that 81% of all political jokes told on major late-night comedy shows in 2023 targeted conservatives. ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” had the highest rate of anti-conservative jokes for one of the six shows studied.
Kimmel has said He has lost at least half of his audience because of his attacks on the former president. He said he rejected the network’s request to be more “neutral” in his comedy to boost ratings, telling executives, “If you want somebody else to host the show, that’s fine. I’m fine with that. I’m just not going to do it.”
Kimmel has also previously claimed he refuses to remain “neutral” in his political jokes. (ABC and Jimmy Kimmel Live!)
comedians such as Johnny Carson and Jay Leno would target both sides and would never be “confused for political activists,” who conched told Fox News Digital.
The Fox News contributor said, “These hosts don’t care that their ratings will go down and half the country will stop listening. Their bosses don’t care what effect this will have on the network. The adults have left the room, and this is all in the name of Trump derangement syndrome.”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live,” CBS’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and NBC’s “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” all saw viewership declines last year despite being the flagship late-night programs on each network.
In 2024, CBS’s “Late Show” will see an 8% drop in total viewers compared to the first six months of 2023, the biggest drop of the three, while NBC’s “Tonight Show” will see a 12% drop, the biggest drop among the key age demographic of 25-54 during the same period.
“The truth is, real comedy doesn’t have a political party,” Failla said. “It’s about bringing people together. When you’re having a party, you don’t ask people at the door who they voted for.”
Fox News’s David Rutz and Brian Flood contributed to this article.
