One of the most coveted jobs in television is quickly becoming one of the hardest to keep filled.
Taylor Tomlinson is the latest participant in a lengthening parade of comics and talk-show hosts who have decided that a perch in late-night TV is just not for them. Tomlinson announced Wednesday that she would leave the two-season-old “After Midnight” on CBS despite the offer of a third cycle this fall and the backing of Stephen Colbert, who hosts “The Late Show” an hour before her program airs. CBS, meanwhile, won’t cast about for someone new to lead her show’s 12:30 a.m. slot.
She joins Trevor Noah and Roy Wood Jr. in a recent exodus of people who had won established positions in wee-hours programming but felt they could do better on their own. Indeed, the next Johnny Carson may not need an NBC — or any other network — to get the job done.
Tomlinson cited a devotion to her stand-up comedy, the practice that first got her noticed on social media and brought her to the attention of executives at CBS. The comedian may also see other opportunities in the wings that she could not pursue if she continued to anchor herself to CBS’ late-night efforts, according to a person familiar with her thinking. “Juggling touring and hosting the show has become unsustainable, and I’ve made the difficult decision to step away so I can focus on standup,” she said via Instagram Wednesday, noting that the program “has pushed me to new limits.”
She isn’t the first to feel a tether at midnight. Jay Leno and Bill Maher toured relentlessly while leading NBC’s “Tonight Show” and HBO’s “Real Time.” Only in recent months has Maher indicated he would get off the road, citing his age as well as a growing interest in his own podcast.
You could argue that the most successful late-night host of the current era is one who cut ties with the format before most of his contemporaries. Conan O’Brien truncated a run as host of “Tonight” in 2010 before taking up a perch for 11 seasons on cable, at what is now Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS. Before his exit in 2021, O’Brien cut his show from an hour to 30 minutes, then left midnight madness behind in favor of new media adventures. Modern viewers “don’t watch ‘Saturday Night Live’ the way we watch ‘Saturday Night Live,’” he said at a press conference in 2018. Talking to two or three guests and then telling the audience to tune in tomorrow “doesn’t make sense any more.”
He went on to find great success in the digital era. After launching a Team Coco podcast and digital-media studio, O’Brien sold that business in 2022 to SiriusXM in a deal reportedly valued at $150 million. The comic recently agreed to host the 2026 Oscars after debuting this year as master of ceremonies for the event, which is regularly broadcast on ABC.
A late-night show is not an easy creature to tame. You need topical humor for every broadcast, an array of guests and musicians, and the staff needs to come up with a few surprises every week to keep viewers delighted. In recent years, the difficulties have been compounded by the fact that no one needs to watch Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel late at night. People can merely sample clips the morning after via YouTube or any number of social-media outlets.
If the job is going to be such a beast, why not take back some creative and personal control by emulating Mr. Beast?
The so-called “creator economy” appears to be booming. Revenue for creator-owned operations is seen as having tripled between 2021 and 2024, according to a report from eMarketer, with revenues in 2024 rising to $880 million from tipping, subscriptions and merchandise sales.
Most individual creators have little to no hope of generating the kind of money that a traditional late-night TV program does. On the other hand, they don’t need to. There are, at least in most cases, no investors who might punish a single comedian for not surpassing quarterly revenue estimates and no analysts who might downgrade a bank’s rating on an individual actor’s stock. A TV network needs to generate hundreds of millions of dollars to stay afloat. A solo comedy practitioner does not.
With such dynamics in the background, it’s little wonder that Trevor Noah announced in front of a live audience in 2022 that he planned to leave Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” after seven years at the helm. Since that time, he has hosted awards programs and podcasts and gone on tour, among other endeavors. Roy Wood, once seen as a potential successor for Noah, opted to leave “Daily” in 2023, citing the network’s inability to designate a permanent host for the program following Noah’s exit — and the chance to pursue new projects. Wood now hosts a weekend topical-comedy show on CNN called “Have I Got News For You,” and will host the Peabody Awards.
As comics find the task of reaching fans made easier via digital media, the life of a well-established late-night host is getting more difficult. Some of the usual midnight crew are being nickel and dimed. NBC cut the band from Seth Meyers’ “Late Night” and scaled Fallon down to four night a week of “Tonight” from his usual five.
Perhaps the established hosts will follow the younger generation — with a little help. Colbert has gotten involved in other programming for CBS, serving as a producer of “After Midnight” and even trying his hand at overseeing a celebrity pickleball tournament. Fallon has in recent years expanded into game shows, books and even a SiriusXM holiday themed channel.
Still, it’s never been easier to cobble together your own media service. And comedy doesn’t have to show up after 11:30 p.m. at night to make people laugh.