For years, late-night TV has drifted into the left-wing abyss, offering little more than boring, partisan monologues and the smirking condescension of hosts smugly winking to their like-minded coastal audiences. Nothing about these shows compelled viewers to stay up past the evening news, and certainly nothing justified the astronomical paychecks of their hosts.
The decline of late night has become a major topic since the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which became a multimillion-dollar boondoggle for the network after decades of alienating half the country. CBS will pull the plug on Colbert in May 2026, and it seems likely that other late shows will follow suit.
But it looks as if Jimmy Fallon and the bigwigs at NBC may have gotten the message, and are realizing that if they don’t appeal to more than just the Democrat-voting public, Fallon might be next.
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According to USA Today, Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld is set to make his debut appearance on “The Tonight Show” next week. An NBC spokesperson confirmed that Gutfeld will be a guest on the Thursday, August 7 episode. Gutfeld, host of the wildly successful late-night show “Gutfeld!” on Fox News, has built a strong following since his show’s April 2021 debut, averaging 3.29 million viewers and consistently outperforming legacy network competitors.
After CBS canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Trump celebrated the move on Truth Social. Colbert fired back on air with a crude insult. Days later, Trump predicted Jimmy Kimmel would be the next to get the axe, followed by Jimmy Fallon.
The comedian and political commentator has long criticized late-night hosts like Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel. But he expressed a soft spot for Fallon during a Thursday, July 31 episode of the Fox News conservative cable hit “The Five.”
“I’m psyched about it because Fallon comes across as a great guy, nice guy,” Gutfeld told his co-hosts. “Also me going on his show shows him that he’s not worried about upsetting his peers.”
He then recalled President Donald Trump’s guest appearance on the “Tonight Show” ahead of the 2016 election, in which Fallon was scrutinized for “humanizing Trump” after tousling his hair for a comedic bit.
“But it didn’t come from anybody but the people on the left who wanted to teach all entertainers a lesson that if you dare show that Trump is a human, then you’re toast,” he added. “And so it’s kind of nice that he’s taken this risk.”
There’s no doubt this move will send the establishment late-night crowd into convulsions. Gutfeld’s success proves the audience isn’t dying for more sneering jokes about flyover country—they’re starved for something genuine and fun. As other shows fade into irrelevance or outright extinction, NBC’s “Tonight Show” is finally doing what it was meant to do: bring America together for a laugh, regardless of how they voted. It’s a small but meaningful course correction in a comedy landscape that’s spent years mocking half the country instead of entertaining them.
So yes, for the first time in a generation, we have a reason to watch “The Tonight Show” again. And I have to say, I’m going to have to tune in to see how it goes.
Will you?
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