The modern late-night format faces a new challenger: social media “talk shows.”
In the last three years, the popularization of short-form content has seen many internet “talk shows” spring up and gain attention. So much so that celebrities have fully embraced this short format and frequently appear as interviewees.
As the late-night talk show format continues to struggle, these internet shows are increasingly being pushed as their modern successor. Although the original late-night format may be outdated for the current generation, it must be recognized as a “tried and true” interview and entertainment program.
Late-night continued to thrive until the early 2010s, when there was a fundamental shift in how late-night was formatted to stay relevant with younger generations.
Bigger set pieces, game show segments, and clippable moments became increasingly common in late-night. With the spread of social media content creation, these shows began catering to young audiences whose attention spans have been declining gradually with clips for YouTube shorts and Instagram reels.
Although hosts like Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert were far less guilty of this crime before their retirements, the ones still carrying the torch like Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have set the whole format ablaze.
Fallon is especially guilty of this attempt at appealing to younger audiences to “modernize” The Tonight Show. Most recently, his vertically filmed mini-series, “Who Billionaire? Me Billionaire?” aired exclusively on TikTok and Instagram, starring up-and-coming content creators.
In recent years, many “internet talk shows” began popping up on social media, with celebrity guest stars on press tours promoting their work.
With only around two minutes of time, these interviews struggle to provide a viewer with anything other than a distraction from real life. While these shows may seem like worthy successors of late-night television, they position themselves more as cheap copies.
Subway Takes, hosted by Kareem Rahma, began with a simple format where the host would ask a New York subway commuter, “What’s your hot take?” As the show increased viewership with viral clips, the interviewees became celebrities on press tours.
READ MORE: So what’s your take, Toronto?
Although the format remains the same, the content is much more disingenuous, with some celebrity takes being planned prior to filming and celebrities trying to appear “relatable” to reach a wider audience.
Similarly, Are You Okay? invites relevant celebrities and influencers to answer comedic questions and evaluates them based on their responses after the interview. The fast-paced editing is incredibly jarring and hard to follow at times. While it exists on a site predominantly made up of Gen Z users, it overly caters to that group.
It makes what would be a regular conversation into an exaggerated edit of out-of-touch celebrities trying to appeal to the masses with their inauthentic opinions.
Although targeted at a more specific demographic,
Gaydar with Anania similarly invites relevant figures on the show to quiz them about the queer community. While issues arise with the “late-night successor” short format with the way its interviews are structured, it is valuable for spreading information about queer culture in an accessible way.
It would be ignorant to not mention the role of modern censorship in the decline of the late-night format, with Jimmy Kimmel’s censorship being the most recent example. With the delicate political landscape of today, there is so much more that can’t be shown on broadcasted television. Social media shows that are independently produced can educate viewers on political issues without overt corporate pressure to censor the scope of their content.
Late-night may be dying, but its cultural impact continues to permeate through our popular culture. That is why these social media clones are so harmful to its legacy. Today, anyone can post an interview with a celebrity and have it blow up to the point it creates a career.
If people are interested in hearing hot or interesting takes, interview real people. If people want to see a celebrity interview, conduct a celebrity interview. It’s these silly and superficial successors to the iconic late-night format that are doing it the most harm — at least, that’s my hot take.
Tags
Jimmy Fallon, late night, late night tv, social media use
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