Fallon Lone Broadcast Late-Night Host This Summer
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- Jimmy Fallon has been the sole host on broadcast late-night this summer, with Kimmel on annual holiday, Meyers off since mid-June, and Colbert off writing a Lord of the Rings movie after CBS axed him
- Seth Meyers has been off since June 18 (with a brief two-week return) and won't return until September 21 — a longer break than in recent years, when he was typically off only the last two weeks of August
- Jimmy Kimmel has baked summers off into his ABC contract since 2020, with guest hosts like Anthony Anderson, Colman Domingo, Ike Barinholtz, Tiffany Haddish, and Rosie O'Donnell filling in this week
- John Oliver is the only other late-night host on air this week as Emmy voting begins, meaning voters won't see latest monologues from Kimmel or Stewart before choosing Outstanding Variety Series
- Linear late-night ad spending dropped from $439 million in 2018 to $221 million in 2024, per Guideline, as the talk format migrates to digital
- YouTube late-night is a mixed bag — Trevor Noah (~5M subscribers) and Conan O'Brien's Team Coco (~10M subs) thrive, but newer shows like Outside Tonight and Good Night struggle with fewer than 8K subscribers and only hundreds of views per episode
- Fallon is signed through 2028 and told USA Today he feels a responsibility to carry the genre into the next generation: 'The idea of it is that it's just someone that you can talk to that's there for you.'
Why it matters: Broadcast late-night's collapse is measurable: ad spending has been cut roughly in half over six years ($439M to $221M), and the article notes that with CBS's exit, Kimmel's likely departure, and John Oliver's one-year deal, the Tonight Show — under Fallon through 2028 — may be the last broadcast late-night franchise standing. The YouTube migration isn't a clean rescue either, as only established names like Conan O'Brien and Trevor Noah are thriving there.
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