Read This: Get used to Jimmy Fallon ruling late-night television

[TMC]

http://www.avclub.com/article/read-g...t-telev-230031

The late-night story of 2015 was supposed to have been the September 8 debut of Stephen Colbert, who left his cozy Comedy Central perch to take over for the retiring David Letterman weeknights on CBS. Instead, according a new article in Variety by Bill Carter (of The War For Late Night fame), the real story of the year is Jimmy Fallon’s continued dominance of the time slot. Carter believes Fallon’s success reflects a fundamental change in late-night.

“The focus of late seems to be shifting away from talk and toward performance,” writes Carter. “Fallon is the obvious center of that movement.” And there is a new battleground, too: the internet, where brief comedy bits can be easily shared on YouTube and disseminated to the masses through social media sites. Fallon is the king of that stuff, with ready-to-go-viral content like his “History Of Rap” series with Justin Timberlake and his celebrity-studded lip sync battles. While ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel has his much-shared “Mean Tweets” segments, meanwhile, Colbert has nothing along those lines on his show. At least not yet.

[Babalu]

I think the real story is that late night TV is now insignificant compared to the past. I loved Johnny Carson, rarely missed it. Liked Letterman until he went south. And now I don't care. 15 million people a night used to watch Johnny Carson when there were 200 million people in the US. Now 3 or 4 million people watch The Tonight Show when there are 300 million people in the US. That's 1%. Who really cares?