A close friend of mine recently confessed to having stopped watching cable news altogether because it was causing him and his wife anxiety and dread. They began watching Jimmy Kimmel instead, saying the nightly news felt like “psychological warfare” on their mental state. “We want to know what’s going on but can’t handle the relentless doom and gloom every night,” he told me.
Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, seems to understand this shift. “A year ago, I would’ve said I’m hoping to show people who aren’t paying attention to the news what’s actually going on,” he told Rolling Stone last month in an interview. “Now I see myself more as a place to scream.”
This isn’t surprising. For almost a decade now, the relationship between audiences and late-night hosts has changed profoundly. Viewers are tuning out cable news and seeking clarity, humor, and relief from late-night comedians like Stephen Colbert, Greg Gutfeld, and the cold opens on SNL. On Bluesky, the buzzy new social platform for those fleeing Elon Musk’s X, one user wrote, “It’s ironic that I use satire shows as more reliable sources than the US mainstream media.” For better or worse, this phenomenon has become a new form of journalism.
How We Got Here
We didn’t always turn to comedians for the headlines. For decades, late-night hosts like Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and even David Letterman, at his most biting, centered their content around celebrity interviews and innocuous zingers. The turning point came after 9/11 when Jon Stewart’s emotional monologue on The Daily Show demonstrated that comedy could process national grief.
Following Trump’s election in 2016, traditional news became more combative and chaotic. The nightly barrage of outrage left viewers emotionally exhausted. Therapists coined it: “Trump Anxiety Disorder.” A recent Axios report found that the chaos surrounding Trump and the 2020 election contributed to a 10% rise in major health issues, including cancer and heart attacks.
In this increasingly tense political climate, liberal audiences found validation through shows like HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Real Time with Bill Maher, and NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers’ segment “A Closer Look.” These programs offer viewers not just a recap of the news but a way to process it, laugh through it, and bear it. They tackle major stories of the day, from tariff wars to deportation cases, all blurring the lines of comedy and journalism.
The Numbers Tell the Story
The popularity of this approach is evident in the ratings. Shows from Colbert, Kimmel, and Gutfeld often outperform traditional cable news in their respective timeframes. For instance, on April 17, Gutfeld! captured 3,177,000 viewers at 10 p.m., significantly outperforming CNN’s Abby Philip (527,000 viewers) and MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell (1,643,000 viewers) in the same slot. This performance has established Gutfeld as the dominant voice in late-night ratings.
For conservative viewers who have long felt alienated by mainstream comedy, the rise of Greg Gutfeld—the former Fox News host turned late-night comedian and his show Gutfeld!—wasn’t just about offering traditional late-night laughs. It provided a late-night space where their frustrations could be acknowledged with humor, not shame. His success highlights how late-night comedy has evolved into ideological echo chambers that reinforce our worldviews, signaling a profound shift in how we consume political information today.
The Trade-Off
Yet, while comedians offer a news style that alleviates the stress of traditional reporting, it’s important to remember they are not journalists. John Oliver, host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, makes this clear: “It’s not journalism. It’s comedy first, comedy second.” Their primary role is to entertain, but it’s also evident they engage in a kind of journalism that resonates with audiences in ways traditional news cannot. The balance we strike is revealing: we often choose comfort over journalistic credibility.
Emotional Survival Over News Accuracy
Mainstream news has stopped working for many Americans. That’s why late-night comedy, with its irreverence and diverse perspectives, is stepping in to fulfill roles once expected of journalism: telling the truth, making it digestible, and offering comfort and understanding.
As news channels increasingly push viewers into opposing camps, comedians have become one of the few unifying forces where people can still gather for some much-needed catharsis. Regardless of political stance, they serve as the voices Americans turn to when the world feels nonsensical. They remind us that we’re not alone in our feelings, and in a landscape where truth often seems absurd, those who can still offer clarity through humor are invaluable.
Jack Rico is an entertainment journalist, TV host, and media pundit with over two decades of experience covering Latinos in media and entertainment. He was featured on ABC News’ primetime special Latinos in Hollywood and is the co-host of the Webby-nominated podcast Brown & Black.
