Late-night television used to be can’t miss entertainment. Going back to Johnny Carson – whom many of us know only from reruns and YouTube clips – along with David Letterman when he was still funny, Americans loved turning on their televisions after the primetime shows concluded.
There may have been only a handful of channels to choose from back then, but there was quality, and millions of Americans chose to have a few laughs before calling it a day. Fast-forward to Johnny’s replacement Jay Leno, along with upstarts such as Arsenio Hall, and the tradition continued.
But in the last decade-plus, the complete shedding of any semblance of political neutrality has destroyed the credibility and humor that the shows used to enjoy. For anyone at the political center or to its right, we don’t laugh with Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers, or the others, because we don’t even bother turning them on anymore.
Previously, it was a difficult decision for many of us whether to stay up late and go to work sleepier than we would have otherwise the following morning, or forget about Leno and Letterman and catch up on some Zs. Now the decision is easy, and the ratings of the late-night shows reflect that development. And so does the announcement yesterday that the network TBS will be canceling the show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.
According to The Hill:
“A TBS spokesperson said in a Monday statement provided to ITK that the cancellation was a result of some ‘difficult, business-based decisions’ made as part of its ‘new programming strategy.’
’Full Frontal With Samantha Bee will not return to TBS,’ the statement confirmed. The TBS show, the most prominent late-night program to feature a female host, premiered in 2016.”
Allow us to translate: When TBS calls the cancelation a “business-based decision,” that means this: No one was watching Samantha’s stupid show, so our advertising revenue is suffering, therefore we’re sending her packing.
One problem for Bee and the others is that the lane they’re trying to fill is already saturated. Leftist late-night hosts are a dime a dozen. In addition to Bee, Kimmel, Colbert, and Myers, we can add Trevor Noah, Jimmy Fallon, Andy Cohen, and others. Another problem is that they can’t bring themselves to criticize fellow leftists and therefore they leave the best comedy material unused. It’s been decades since we’ve had subjects for jokes riper than Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Nancy Pelosi. But they all rely instead on dull Trump impressions and lame jabs at Mitch McConnell and Samuel Alito.
As a result, the only conservative on late-night TV is Greg Gutfeld who typically wins the ratings war each week, often by huge margins. Meanwhile, Samantha Bee comes in at or near the bottom regularly and must resort to stunts such as calling Ivanka Trump the C-word or genuinely inciting violence in order to gain attention.
Any of us who’ve caught a glimpse of Samantha Bee during her show over the past seven years, however, realize there is a more fundamental problem with Ms. Bee: Her personality. Simply put, she’s not very funny and is instead quite annoying. Even if Bee wasn’t acting as a surrogate for the Democratic Party, attacking Republicans for anything and everything, and regurgitating the talking points of the Biden White House on a nightly basis, she’d still be incredibly irritating. Speaking of which, if Samantha Bee is looking for a job, maybe she should send her resume to CNN and MSNBC. She’d fit right in.
By Jess Lawson
Jess Lawson is a regular contributor to The Blue State Conservative and a passionate, conservative millennial who loves America.
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