{"id":97266,"date":"2025-07-27T17:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T17:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97266\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T17:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T17:35:09","slug":"jay-leno-questions-why-late-night-hosts-alienate-half-their-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97266\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Leno Questions Why Late-Night Hosts “Alienate” Half Their Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhile many in the late-night community are standing by Stephen Colbert<\/a>, one veteran host has a different perspective.<\/p>\n

\n\tJay Leno<\/a> recently commented on the political comedy of today\u2019s late-night hosts after The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/a> was unceremoniously canceled<\/a> at CBS<\/a>, amid the network\u2019s dealings with Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI like to think that people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, you know, the pressures of life, whatever it might be,\u201d he told David Trulio<\/a>, president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. \u201cI love political humor, don\u2019t get me wrong, but it\u2019s just what happens when people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNoting that he \u201cnever discussed\u201d politics with close friend and frequent guest Rodney Dangerfield, Leno said, \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody wants to hear a lecture. When I was with Rodney, it was always in the economy of words \u2014 get to the joke as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLeno added, \u201cWell, why shoot for just half an audience all the time? You know, why not try to get the whole [audience]? I mean, I like to bring people into the big picture. I don\u2019t understand why you would alienate one particular group, you know, or just don\u2019t do it at all. I\u2019m not saying you have to throw your support or whatever, but just do what\u2019s funny.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Paramount<\/a> is under fire for canceling The Late Show<\/a> on the heels of the company\u2019s $16M settlement<\/a> with Trump, which has been scrutinized as potential bribery<\/a> by some lawmakers. Following Colbert\u2019s ongoing jokes at the president\u2019s expense, Trump has celebrated the talk show\u2019s demise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeno hosted NBC\u2019s The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2014, with the exception of when he left to film his short-lived primetime talk show The Jay Leno Show from 2009 to 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many in the late-night community are standing by Stephen Colbert, one veteran host has a different perspective.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,63619,63863,47174,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-97266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jay-leno","10":"tag-late-night-tv","11":"tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114926408764008431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}