Conan O’Brien Says Late-Night TV Is Doomed | Conan O’Brien isn’t holding out hope for a late-night television comeback.

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1. From the article: Speaking at the 27th Television Academy Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday, the former Late Night host declared that the traditional talk-show format is on its way out—for good.

   “Late-night television, as we have known it since around 1950, is going to disappear,” O’Brien said, after being inducted into the Hall of Fame by Friends actress Lisa Kudrow.

   Still, the comedy veteran stressed that while the structure of late-night may be crumbling, its strongest voices aren’t going anywhere.

   He pointed to The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, who revealed last month that CBS was scrapping the iconic program he’s hosted for nearly a decade. The final episode is expected to air in May.

   “People like Stephen Colbert are too talented, and too essential, to go away,” O’Brien said. “It’s not going to happen. He’s not going anywhere. Stephen is going to evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely.”

   Executives cited shifting viewer habits and declining ad revenue as the primary reasons for ending The Late Show, stoking further anxiety over the future of late-night television.

   O’Brien acknowledged those forces and cautioned that the “fear” over television’s future is very real.

   “The life we’ve all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change,” he said. “But this might just be my nature—I choose not to mourn what is lost. Because I think in the most essential way what we have is not changing at all.”

2. The writing has been on the wall for a while now 

3. He says it’s doomed, but he’s not holding out? 

4. He’s right, it’s pretty obvious

5. The old formula doesn’t work anymore. The interviews are boring. Celebrities are fake ……
   Graham Nortons show is good. But yes.its a dying platform.

6. I have just been watching the monologue and barely any guest stuff on Youtube for years.

7. Is there a reason to tune in? They no longer feature new and interesting stand ups. You can get better celebrity interviews on a podcast and their political commentary is “meh.”

   Why would I tune in?

8. I think there will be *some* version of Late Night talk shows that will persist. The thing right now is that you 5 or 6 guys who all have the same opinions and tell the same jokes about the same news stories and interviewing the same people.

   If you get people like Scott Auckerman to do an hour long improv variety show on network primetime it would be great. I thought Taylor Tomlinson did a good job on After Midnight.

   No one wants to see Colbert interview a House Rep from Indiana before they go to sleep.

9. Standup Comedy used to be a rare commodity. New Martin Lawrence special? It’s playing next month on HBO. Or go to blockbuster and hope that Carlin tape is finally in. We used to stay up past our bedtimes to watch SNL or Letterman. Laughing was something you had to seek out and it was in short supply.

   Now, you can watch endless clips of routines and concerts on demand on your phone. No reason to stay up late or wait for anything.

10. I know exactly zero people who actually watch late night television. It’ dead. Why would anyone watch it?

    I mean, sure, if Craig Ferguson came back with a show, yeah, of course people would watch it maybe sometimes for a few minutes or whatever, but other than that – why would anyone watch what’s on late night tv interview shows? Who cares?

11. Because you all turned into mocking and satire of news networks and now it just isn’t funny because you can’t make the shit up that’s in the actual news!

12. He was the goat.

13. Podcasts killed late night TV.

14. Never thought I’d live to see free speech become an issue.

15. Late night makes no sense if you can watch it at anytime

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